'Fundamental ineptitude': How Trump is pushing America off a cliff at 'frightening speed'

29 April

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 23, 2025.

With President Donald Trump having been back in the White House for 100 days, many right-wing media outlets are praising his "record of accomplishment" and echoing his "promises made, promises kept" slogan. But outside the MAGA bubble, much of the analysis of Trump's second presidency is overwhelmingly negative.

In a scathing article published on April 29, The Guardian's David Smith describes Trump's second presidency as a combination of "ineptitude" and "authoritarianism."

"Trump is seeking to remake the U.S. in his image at frightening speed," Smith warns. "The shock and awe of his second term has challenged many Americans' understanding of who they are. In three months, Trump has shoved the world's oldest continuous democracy towards authoritarianism at a pace that tyrants overseas would envy. He has used executive power to take aim at Congress, the law, the media, culture and public health."

Smith continues, "Still aggrieved by his 2020 election defeat and 2024 criminal conviction, his regime of retribution has targeted perceived enemies and proved that no grudge is too small. Historically, such strongmen have offered the populace a grand bargain: if they will surrender some liberties, he will make the trains run on time. But Trump's delusions of monarchy have been coupled with a fundamental ineptitude.

Trump's "trade war," Smith laments, "injected chaos into the economy" and is "raising the specter of recession" — while his ally, Elon Musk, is "threatening health and welfare benefits for millions."

Smith writes, "The scale of the disaster is hard to comprehend for anyone who expected a repeat of Trump's first term….. The impact has been profound, with consumer confidence plummeting, stock markets convulsing and investors losing confidence in the credibility of Trump's policies."

Smith emphasizes that Trump's second term is proving to be much worse than his first — a view shared by political scientist Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

In 2021, Sabato told The Guardian that Trump's first term would be remembered as the worst presidency in U.S. history but now says, "I was wrong. This is the worst presidency in American history. The ignorance was actually our ally in the first Trump term. He didn't know what he was doing and now, unfortunately, while he still doesn't know what he's doing, he knows more than he did. Trump believes he is infallible. He’s going to burn out with the public long before the end of this term."

David Smith's full article for The Guardian is available at this link.

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