The vibe is deteriorating in America, and it isn’t just because the stock market has vaporized over $11 trillion since Donald Trump’s inauguration. Even loyalists like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman now seem terrified of the erratic hell storm they’ve unleashed. Once one of Trump’s praisers-in-chief, Ackman recently likened the president’s nonstop policy chaos to an “economic nuclear winter.”

That’s hardly a sign of confidence in the Trump administration, but anyone who paid attention during the 2024 campaign (or at any point during Trump’s career) saw it coming. What Trump promised during the last campaign was a presidency that did away with the political restrictions of ideology or the rule of law. Instead, Trump promised to govern by vengeance. It was always going to be this bad, and things will get worse still.

What we are witnessing is the end result of a presidency where values are fluid and transactional, expertise is irrelevant and our national credibility is an afterthought. If Trump dedicated half as much effort to governing as he........

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