Trump’s 'shock and awe' is more like schlock and blah…blah…blah

04 February

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while signing executive orders during a brief event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2025.

Donald Trump has undoubtedly caused more needless and destructive havoc in the first two weeks of his second administration than any president in U.S. history.

As Triangle-area Congresswoman Deborah Ross told NC Newsline in an interview for the upcoming edition of the weekly radio show/podcast News & Views, though some of his high-profile edicts have already been quickly and rightfully enjoined by the courts, many others in areas like climate policy and women’s health are “fully in effect and already having devastating consequences around the world and in people’s lives.”

What’s more, the sheer volume of orders, directives, memos, and PR stunts, has given rise to an atmosphere of widespread fear and anxiety.

For American families with immigrant members in particular, Trump’s talk of mass deportations and construction of a concentration camp-like facility in Guantanamo, Cuba has millions on edge.

But it’s not just the most vulnerable in society who are feeling fearful. Trump’s half-baked tariffs scheme has everyone from auto workers to stockbrokers worried about their economic futures and retirement accounts. And the nutty and ill-conceived directives to freeze trillions of dollars in federal funding have caused hundreds of thousands of vitally important workers in the public and private sectors to lose plenty of sleep.

Meanwhile, the prices of groceries and other essentials that were supposed to have magically plummeted as soon as Trump once again graced the Oval Office, have remained — as commonsense told us they would — stubbornly unmoved.

Altogether, it’s been enough to make a caring and thinking person fear for their sanity and their country’s future as they’ve pondered the rapidly metastasizing mess in Washington and the daunting task that lies ahead in resisting Trump’s cruel onslaught.

As Congresswoman Ross observed:

“We have got to right this ship, and it may take a long time to do it. My colleagues and I in Congress are introducing legislation. We’re supporting lawsuits…. We’re having rallies and press conferences on the Capitol grounds. We’re encouraging our constituents to speak out. But the bottom line is that we’re going to have to do this for four years. This is not a one-and-done kind of thing.”

Ross is right. The months and years ahead will demand dedication and hard work — organizing, letter writing, social media advocacy, rallies, demonstrations and direct actions, and paying close and regular attention to a lot of very unpleasant news — if the worst of Trumpism is to be blunted. As Winston Churchill famously observed during World War II, “when you’re going through hell, keep going.”

And yet, it’s also vitally important to remember that all is far from lost. As commentator Ezra Klein explained in an excellent column in the February 2 edition of the New York Times entitled “Don’t believe him,” a big part of Trump’s much ballyhooed “shock and awe” strategy of these first few weeks of his administration can probably be more accurately characterized as schlock and blah…blah…blah.

Here’s Klein:

“There is a reason Trump is doing all of this through executive orders rather than submitting these same directives as legislation to pass through Congress. A more powerful executive could persuade Congress to eliminate the spending he opposes or reform the civil service to give himself the powers of hiring and firing that he seeks. To write these changes into legislation would make them more durable and allow him to argue their merits in a more strategic way.”

In other words, as has been the case with countless bullies throughout history, Trump is a fundamentally weak figure with few, if any, genuine friends or deep personal connections, who has long gotten most of what he wants through bluster and intimidation.

He is, as Klein says, a salesman who wants to be a king. He has no interest in or aptitude for the kind of slow, methodical, disciplined work it takes to bring truly lasting and transformative change to American government — much less the broader society.

That’s why he and his minions are trying so hard to foment a rapid wave of fear and panic in the immigrant community. They know that 20,000 ICE employees spread over two dozen field offices can’t, on their own, make a real dent in an unauthorized immigrant population of more than 11 million, and they have no realistic plan for doing it any other way.

Of course, none of this is to say that the Trump camp doesn’t include its fair share of formidable and cunning characters possessed of plenty of commitment and discipline. The warnings we have all repeatedly read of the parallels between the Trump crowd and those of many past and present-day autocrats are undeniable, and the damage the nation is about to endure is quite real and significant.

But as with all large enterprises led by such charlatans, determined, steady, resistance from millions of people can and will be its undoing — especially if those who would resist remain engaged, bear witness, protest, aid those in need, adjust where and how they spend and contribute their money, and refuse to be overwhelmed and intimidated.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com.

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