'Shock and Awe'
Trump’s First 10 Days Back in Power Were Uniquely Depraved. Don’t Get Numb To It
The president’s chaotic return to office was calculated to overwhelm the opposition
Late last year, as Donald Trump and his transition staff crafted executive orders, pardons, and a multi-front policy blitz designed to create “shock and awe” at the dawn of his second term in the White House, they were confident that the American people would ultimately let them get away with it — no matter the initial media or political backlash.
According to two advisers who spoke with the president-elect in advance of his inauguration, Trump was betting that a “flood the zone” approach could overwhelm a demoralized Democratic Party and oversaturate the media ecosystem. Trump and his officials were confident the general public would grow numb — and stay numb — to this opening onslaught.
Trump appears to be taking that mentality to heart. The first 10 days of the administration have been marked by an unprecedented barrage of barbaric policy moves and casual executive depravity. In many cases these actions have flown in the face of the law, decades of tradition, and even the Constitution.
Trump has remained remarkably faithful to his dark, Day One promises, and has attempted to govern as an authoritarian. The president’s early actions have not gone unchallenged. A bevy of lawsuits — including, as promised, by blue-state attorneys general — have already been filed, seeking to block, or at least blunt, the damage.
Many of his early orders and actions have drawn directly from the right-wing playbook detailed in Project 2025 — making a sucker out of anyone who took Trump’s campaign disavowals of the Heritage Foundation-crafted agenda seriously.
If you’ve been unable to take it all in — or felt like you needed to look away — know that that’s by design. Take a few moments and catch up on the worst of what you may have missed:
Rolling Back Civil Rights
- Trump attempted to write millions of transgender and intersex Americans out of existence with an executive order mandating that the federal government recognize only two genders, male and female. The order forbids federal identity documents from allowing any other options — and the State Department has already implemented this policy for passports. The order also declares that trans prisoners be placed in facilities according to their sex at birth. (This part of the order has prompted federal litigation by an incarcerated trans woman.)
- Trump also ordered the military to develop a policy to discriminate against trans service members. Trump’s order states that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service” and that being trans “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life.” The details of excluding trans Americans from service, as well as creating the military equivalent of a “bathroom ban,” will be left to new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — a cisgender male who, according to the claims of drunkenness and infidelity that tarnished his confirmation hearings, has hardly embodied the personal rectitude that Trump now claims to value. (The order is already being challenged in court.)
- In a third executive order aimed at trans erasure, Trump seeks to “protect” trans youth from “chemical and surgical mutilation” — the administration’s ugly shorthand for gender-affirming care. The order seeks to use government power, including potentially revoking federal funding from medical schools, to short-circuit youth access to hormone therapies and surgery. The order — substituting government ideology for the wisdom of patients, parents, and care providers — makes the claim that it is protecting trans youth who may otherwise “soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy” of their new lives.
- Trump rescinded a bedrock executive order, dating to the Civil Rights era, mandating non-discrimination by government contractors. Signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, that order desegregated the labor force of companies receiving federal government dollars. (In recent years the value of federal contracts has been nearly $700 million annually.)
- The administration has declared war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs throughout the federal government. Employees in DEI-specific programs have been suspended, for now with pay. And the administration has created a snitch-line email, demanding federal employees report any colleagues or contractors whose DEI positions may have been renamed or obscured, threatening “adverse consequences” for noncompliance.
- Trump issued a separate anti-DEI order for the Armed Forces. Complying in advance, the Air Force scrapped an educational video celebrating the exploits of the famed, color-barrier busting Tuskegee Airmen. (Facing intense backlash, Hegseth has ordered this reversed.)
- The State Department of Marco Rubio banned LGBTQ+ and other flags from flying at State Department facilities.
Debasing the Rule of Law
- Acting Attorney General James McHenry fired more than a dozen career Department of Justice officials who were involved in his criminal prosecution, declaring they could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” Trump’s agenda.
- Trump issued nearly 1,500 pardons and commutations to the criminals and defendants from the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Those pardoned included Proud Boys honcho Enrique Tarrio, whose 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy was wiped away, as well as violent rioters who assaulted cops. Trump also commuted the sentences of top Oath Keepers convicted of sedition, including its founder, Stewart Rhodes. After some brief confusion about whether they should serve probation, they are now enjoying unconditional release as well.
- Trump’s opening pardon blitz also included lawless antiabortion activists who’d blockaded access to a clinic.
Nativism as Immigration Policy
Editor’s picks
- Trump issued an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship for newborns without a permanent-resident parent, in apparent violation of the 14th Amendment. The order spawned a flurry of litigation, including by the ACLU and more than a dozen state attorneys general. The first judge to weigh in, a Reagan appointee, issued an temporary injunction calling Trump’s order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
- Trump declared a “National Emergency” at the Southern border and deployed federal troops to “seal the border.”
- Trump suspended refugee resettlement — with chaotic impacts, in particular harming Afghan refugees who aided the U.S. military who were awaiting flights to the United States.
- Trump labeled international drug and crime cartels as terrorist organizations, potentially opening the door for military strikes against them.
- For the first time, the administration invoked the authority to task all law-enforcement officers within the Department of Justice as immigration officers, including the U.S. Marshals, staff of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Drug Enforcement Agency officers, and agents with the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
- The administration has begun a campaign of mass deportation, with ICE raids on workplaces, and public venues, including outside churches, reversing long-standing policy. Agents have harassed and demanded papers of U.S. citizens including a military veteran in New Jersey and an Apache tribal member in New Mexico.
- Trump announced Wednesday that he is ordering the construction of a 30,000 capacity “migrant facility” at Guantanamo Bay to house “the worst criminal aliens.”
- The Guantanamo announcement came as Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, passed with the support of dozens of Democrats in Congress, that mandates the detention of undocumented immigants who are merely accused of crimes such as theft.
The Brown New Deal
- Trump immediately pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, putting the United States in league with Iran, Somalia, and Yemen as the only rogue nations not coordinating cuts in climate emissions.
- Trump signed an executive order blocking offshore wind-energy permitting.
- Several Trump orders have sought to freeze spending on green infrastructure and low-carbon subsidies. He has sought to stop spending through the Inflation Reduction Act and climate-focused parts of the infrastructure bill.
- Trump has touted his record on clean water, but the Trump EPA announced it is revoking a regulation to limit so-called “forever chemicals” or PFAS from the nation’s water supply.
Know-Nothing Health and Science
- Trump signed an executive order that purports to pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, and administration officials have ordered the Centers for Disease Control to cease communications with the global health body that offers early warnings on diseases with pandemic potential.
- The administration has at least temporarily blocked PEPFAR — the George W. Bush initiative for combating AIDS globally — from distributing HIV medication abroad. PEPFAR is credited with saving 25 million lives. The pause in antiretroviral drug administration could quickly prove deadly.
- The Trump administration has disrupted the functioning of the NIH by implementing a freeze on spending and meetings where billions in scientific grant dollars are awarded to research institutions. Neither the length of the freeze nor the aim of the policy are clear, but the move has sent a chill through the nation’s research institutions.
Cabinet of Horrors
Trump has already pushed a slate of controversial cabinet appointees through the Senate.
- Pete Hegseth, Department of Defense: The former Fox News weekend personality was dogged in his bid to lead the Pentagon by an allegation of sexual assault, claims of public drunkenness in uniform, and a supposed bias against Muslims, in addition to a lack of relevant experience and a track record of alleged executive mismanagement. His confirmation ultimately required a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance to overcome three GOP defections, including by former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
- Kristi Noem, Department of Homeland Security: Sure, Noem wrote a memoir in which she admitted to shooting her own dog and had to walk back apparently fanciful claims of staring down Kim Jong Un, but she nonetheless earned bipartisan support. The Senate voted 59-33, including seven Democratic yes votes, to confirm her. Cabinet position secured, Noem soon donned an ICE vest, and joined an immigration raid in New York City to get “the dirtbags off these streets.”
- John Ratcliffe, Central Intelligence Agency: A Trump loyalist who previously served as director of National Intelligence, Ratcliffe was confirmed 74-25 with the support of 20 Democrats and Independent Angus King of Maine. One of Ratcliffe’s first orders of business was to promote the CIA’s “low confidence” theory that Covid-19 originated from a Chinese lab leak.
- Scott Bessent, Department of the Treasury: A high financier who opposes an increase to the minimum wage wage, Bessent was confirmed by a vote of 68-29, with 15 Democrats and Independent Angus King of Maine supporting him. Bessent is tasked with creating an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs, which are in fact sales taxes imposed on importers in the United States.
- Marco Rubio, Department of State: The longtime Florida senator received home-court deference in the upper chamber of Congress, with the body confirming his nomination 99-0. Rubio immediately implemented an alarming freeze on foreign aid — including to Ukraine — with an exception for military funding to Israel and Egypt.
- Sean Duffy, Department of Transportation: The former Real World cast member, ex-congressman, and Fox Business host was confirmed to lead the Transportation Department on Tuesday on a 77-22 vote. (His bloc of Democratic no votes swelled in a protest of Trump’s chaotic, now-delayed, spending freeze.) Duffy’s first action at DOT was a memo giving marching orders to rescind “overly restrictive” fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks.
War on Accountability
- Trump fired more than a dozen inspector generals, who provide internal oversight and accountability within executive agencies. While presidents can remove IGs, there is supposed to be due process. And the chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency has claimed that Trump broke the law by failing to provide a 30-day notice to Congress, as well as specific cause for each firing. One of the targeted IGs called the mass firing an “existential threat” to oversight within the executive branch.
- Trump fired the Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an agency that watchdogs federal surveillance programs, which recently issued a report calling for reform of the “no-fly” Terrorist Watchlist. For now, the group is short of a quorum and unable to meet.
Jingoistic Name Games
Trump issued orders to:
- Rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”
- Rename the U.S.’s tallest mountain, Denali, again as Mt. McKinley.
Fouled-up Foreign Policy
- Trump appeared to call for ethnic cleansing in Gaza, telling reporters on Air Force One that he would like to “clean out the whole thing” and send Gaza’s residents to resettle in Egypt and Jordan.
- Elise Stefanik, Trump’s choice for U.N. Ambassador, testified that she believes Israel has a biblical right to the occupied territory in the West Bank.
A Lightning Trade War
- When Colombia refused to receive a U.S. military jet full of shackled deportees, Trump went ballistic, threatening to slap ruinous import taxes on Colombian coffee, flowers, and other trade goods. Colombia’s president matched Trump’s bombast, threatening trade retaliation — until an agreement was reached to apparently deliver the deportees without handcuffs.
Eroding Gun Safety
- The White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention — a Biden-Harris initiative that focused less on restricting guns than on providing resources to communities affected by gun violence — appears to have been shuttered.
Pursuing Petty Grievances
- Trump followed through with something he’d been griping about for years, and yanked the protective details for several former officials with whom he has a personal beef, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former CIA director Mike Pompeo, and former federal scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci. In some cases, Trump did this even though the outgoing Biden administration explicitly warned him and his staff that there were active threats against these ex-officials. It didn’t matter. These men had hurt Trump’s feelings.
- Another ex-official who clashed with Trump, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, had his portrait removed from the Pentagon, and was reportedly also stripped of his security detail.
Big Boss Dysfunction
- Through a series of executive orders, Trump has attempted to drive a haphazard, partial government shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo Monday (first reported by independent journalist Marisa Kabas) that appeared to halt funding for a wide swath of government programs — from Meals on Wheels to Pell grants to farm subsidies. The sweeping memo even threatened to create a constitutional crisis over the executive branch seizing the power of the purse from Congress, and briefly brought Medicaid reimbursements to a halt. OMB hurriedly backtracked yesterday, with a new memo clarifying that it only wanted to pause funding related to Trump’s ideological executive orders regarding, specifically, DEI programs and green-energy spending. A federal judge responded to a lawsuit filed by nonprofit grantees by ordering payments to existing programs to keep flowing through at least Feb. 3. Rather than defend the original memo in court, the administration then recinded it. Regardless, the impact has been widespread concern and confusion. In line with other early Trump actions, this is clearly an end unto itself for the new administration.
- Other Trump executive orders seem aimed to flex his muscles as America’s big boss. The president ordered a federal hiring freeze — which has screwed over many veterans whose jobs offers were rescinded — and ended work-from-home privileges for many federal workers, demanding they return to the office.