100 Days of Chaos, Corruption, and Cruelty

It hasn't been great.

May 02, 2025

Each week, we chronicle the chaotic, corrupt, and cruel actions of Donald Trump and his administration. This week we are going to zoom out and look at the first 100 days of Trump’s chaos, corruption, and cruelty.

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Chaos: DOGE Cuts, Economic Meltdown, and Isolated Allies

Fired and rehired nuclear officials. Reckless budget slashing. Tariffs that tanked the markets. An erratic foreign policy that’s pushed allies away. In just 100 days, Donald Trump has ushered in chaos—and an economic nosedive.

DOGE Cuts

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived in Washington with big promises: $2 trillion in budget cuts. That was quietly slashed to $1 trillion. The actual “savings”? DOGE claims $160 billion, but independent estimates show it’s costing taxpayers $135 billion this year due to mass layoffs, emergency rehiring, and lost productivity.

USAID was hit hardest. DOGE terminated 92% of its grants, dismantling an agency that had operated for over 60 years. Programs were shut down with little to no notice—contracts were canceled midstream, aid workers were fired en masse, and chaos reigned.

Here’s what that looks like in the real world:

Seven hospitals closed in South Sudan by Save the Children
Mental health services suspended in Ethiopia and Kenya
Food aid cut off for 700,000+ people in Afghanistan
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment disrupted in multiple countries

And while claiming fiscal discipline, Trump’s government spent $200 billion more than the same period last year—a 6% spike in federal spending.

DOGE’s legacy? A government that’s meaner, messier, and failing the world’s most vulnerable.

Economic Chaos

Trump’s first 100 days have delivered nothing but economic whiplash. His erratic tariff regime—10% across the board, 25% on vehicles and parts, and up to 145% on Chinese imports—has sent markets and supply chains into freefall.

$6.6 trillion in market value wiped out: The S&P 500 fell 7.9%—the second-worst start to a presidency since Nixon—while the Dow and Nasdaq plunged into bear territory, erasing all gains since the 2024 election.
Jobs lost, hiring stalled: Tariffs are projected to eliminate 740,000 jobs by year’s end. Immediate layoffs have hit dockworkers, truckers, and small manufacturers. While Q1 saw 345,000 new jobs, most came from sectors shielded from trade—and April hiring already slowed.
Manufacturing in crisis: Ocean freight bookings from China dropped 50%, choking supply chains. U.S. ports and logistics firms are reporting steep revenue declines. If tariffs persist through 2025, it could slash $1 trillion from economic activity.
Wages and household wealth down: Long-term forecasts show Trump’s tariffs will reduce GDP by 6–8% and wages by 5–7%, costing the average middle-class household between $22,000 and $58,000 over a lifetime.

Then came the hard data: GDP shrank 0.3% in Q1—a sharp reversal from the 2.4% growth in Q4 under Biden. For comparison, Biden’s first 100 days saw 6.3% GDP growth and an 8.5% market surge.

Bottom line: Trump’s policies are actively driving us toward recession. Tariffs are killing jobs, gutting small businesses, and gut-punching the middle class.

This isn’t a policy error. It’s economic sabotage—by design.

Corruption: The Most Corrupt Administration Ever

Donald Trump’s second term is already the most corrupt in American history. Since Inauguration Day, his net worth has soared—thanks not to real estate, but to $TRUMP, a meme coin he launched days before taking office.

Marketed as a token for supporters, the coin was a textbook scam:

80% of tokens were reserved for Trump-affiliated wallets
20% were sold to the public
Price surged from $7 to $75, then crashed—leaving everyday buyers devastated
Trump and his allies pocketed $900,000 in fees in two days

Here’s the bottom line:

31 insiders made nearly $700 million
800,000 retail investors lost $2 billion
Trump’s family profits from every transaction

But the corruption goes deeper.

Crypto’s anonymity allows unlimited, untraceable payments—including from foreign sources. Now Trump is selling direct access to the presidency, announcing a private dinner for the top 220 investors in his coin. The more you invest, the closer you get.

The kicker? The dinner announcement came one week after his coin’s lock-up period expired, allowing him to cash in. The coin’s value jumped 60% overnight.

So let’s recap:

Launch a scam meme coin
Trump insiders profit while supporters lose billions
Sell access to the presidency, jacking up the value of the coin
Cash in when your tokens unlock

This is the greatest grift in American history.

Cruelty: Immigration Policies Aimed at Punishment Not Security

Donald Trump has changed what America stands for. We are no longer the “Shining City on a Hill.” The Statue of Liberty might as well be returned to France. This country, once a refuge for the persecuted, has slammed the door shut.

Through mass detentions, lawless deportations, and open rejection of due process, Trump has ended the idea of America as a safe haven. Of all his chaos and corruption, this is the one that breaks my heart the most.

Here’s a snapshot of that cruelty:

A college student, kidnapped off the street by unidentified agents, for writing an op-ed.
A gay Venezuelan hairdresser, falsely accused of being MS-13, sent to an El Salvadorian gulag.
A Maryland father deported to the same gulag—despite a court order explicitly forbidding it.
A Canadian actress, held in ICE detention for 10 days, for trying to renew her visa.
A four-year-old U.S. citizen with stage 4 cancer, deported to Honduras. ICE gave the family no time, no options, no path to keep her in care.

None of these people posed a threat. Yet some were effectively sentenced to life in foreign prison camps—without ever seeing a judge.

This isn’t about safety. It’s about punishment.

ICE now raids schools, hospitals, even churches. Arrest quotas have skyrocketed. U.S. citizens are being terrorized in their own neighborhoods. Due process is optional. Court orders are ignored.

The Trump administration has made itself clear: They want mass deportations. Legal status won’t protect you. The courts can’t save you. Due process is irrelevant.

This isn’t immigration enforcement. It’s a campaign of cruelty—deliberate, strategic, and central to Trump’s authoritarian project.

And here’s the truth:
This isn’t just about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
It’s not about the mother of a four-year-old cancer patient.
It’s about us—and whether we still believe in the core American principle that if the government is going to take away your freedom, they need to stand before a judge or jury and explain why.

Trump is testing our resolve. He’s betting that fear will make us abandon the Constitution. That if he calls someone MS-13, we won’t care whether they get a lawyer, a hearing, or even a day in court.

If he can get us to stop believing in due process for them, he knows it’s only a matter of time before we stop believing in it for ourselves.

We can’t fail this test. Because if we do, we’re next.