Since day one of Trump’s second term, it has been a non-stop year of really bad things happening in the United States. Horrible and previously unimaginable things have become our new norm.
To recap: The administration kicked off 2025 with rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—and while the executive order Trump signed was initially directed within the federal government, the sentiment of rolling back DEI efforts spread far beyond the government to retailers and organizations choosing to follow in the government’s steps, either because they were just looking for an excuse or to curry favor or not be seen as “dissenters.” (Of course, some retailers like Target, who decided to play along with the administration, learned the hard way that folks didn’t like them enough to forgive them bending the knee to fascists and have suffered a year of losses.)
We watched record numbers of Black women become unemployed as the federal workforce was slashed by America’s favorite South African tech bro and racist, Elon Musk.
We have witnessed our federal government attack whole communities to go after immigrants—supposedly targeting undocumented ones but not being at all that selective, actually, starting mostly with Latinos and more recently going Somali immigrants and Somali-Americans. We have seen the government literally turn on its own people and invade cities with military force, like in my hometown of Chicago.
Big burly, not-too-intelligent-looking white men with an assist from a handful of self-hating people of color now regularly snatch people right off the streets across the country. So much so that in many places there are “ICE watch” hotlines to try and keep people safe. Sometimes these “agents” get undocumented people and sometimes they get American citizens since apparently they are on some type of quota system like an ole skool telemarketer. Except instead of selling windows and widgets they are kidnapping people—people who end up in questionable places such as Alligator Alcatraz and we still aren’t quite sure if the kids and women who are abducted by these state-sanctioned morally-bereft thugs are being taken to safe places. Given the company the president used to keep and the things his administration is trying to keep hidden, there could a government-sponsored trafficking rings for all we know. I mean, the Trump empire has included steaks, hotels, schools and bibles, so why not people? Clearly there are enough sick people in this world to make that kind of business profitable.
Let’s see…other highlights this past year were the tariffs that decimated the economy. Of course, we don’t know the exact details on the economy because you can’t really trust the data they do provide, when they provide data at all (which is less and less often now). A recent conversation with a friend, though—who is a high-end contractor and developer—revealed to me that even the well-heeled are starting to pull back.
Then there were the attacks on colleges and universities, where federal funding for the kind of research that once made this country truly great would be revoked unless schools bowed to the whims of the administration. Turned out the free exchange of ideas and thoughts isn’t as valuable as they used to be, and the bulk of the schools targeted by the administration eventually decided that money mattered more.
Moving along, access to abortion and basic gynecological care for low-income women has been eradicated in some places and is threatened everywhere by this administration via funding cuts. Heaven forbid that low-income women and girls have access to preventative care such as breast and cervical cancer screenings. This isn’t just a thing in red states, either. Here in Maine, due to the federal funding cuts, providers have had to reduce their offerings, so lest you think the people in the red states are “getting what they deserve,” no, this impacts all states. Funny thing, it doesn’t really matter who voted for what, we are all impacted. And don’t forget that “red” states are frequently home to lots of “blue” people, too, who didn’t vote for any of this.
Of course, there was also that government shutdown, the longest one ever and the one that left some Americans without their food benefits because this administration has a funny way of interpreting laws—anything that could be good for the people, they can’t do that. If there’s a shutdown, keep ICE funded but don’t dip into that contingency fund for SNAP. So, we saw that our government is really about that evil life; fuck the American people.
This recap is just everything I remember off the top of my head. A general overview of the bad things that happened in 2025. No doubt I am blanking on several other somethings, but we don’t have forever anyway to cover it all here, because my ultimate point isn’t a recap.
You see, a few days ago when 47 and his merry band of evildoers decided to attack a sovereign nation, kidnap their evil-ass leader and commandeer that country’s oil, that was when a lot of people finally started to realize that we are in some truly deep trouble. I mean, running up in Venezuela to snatch a sitting head of state and deciding to invoke “manifest destiny” and claim it owes us their resources is all kinds of not legal and really sets a bad global precedent.
When I first heard the news of what we had done, I can’t say that I was surprised because we have always done shady things in Latin American countries. But we used to not be this brazen. Then again, why would I expect this administration to demonstrate a modicum of decorum or subtlety? I have shared my more in-depth thoughts on Venezuela and what it bodes for us here in the states over on my Substack.
No, what really strikes me is how many Americans are finally realizing that we are on a train that has jumped the tracks and that this is a situation which will result in serious injuries and quite likely a shitload of fatalities (of the literal and metaphorical kind both). We will not emerge from this unscathed. Even if Congress and the Supreme Court jointly decided today that they are tired of 47 and his band of evil misfits and do something about it, the damage already has been done. No one will ever look at this country the same, now that everyone knows that American democracy is as flimsy as public school restroom toilet paper and that it is suffering a steaming case of diarrhea. The guardrails that millions assumed would always work now exist just for show.
Here’s the thing: Kamala Harris told us what 47 had planned and it turned out that every page of Project 2025 was indeed a manual for their plans. As each month passed last year, it was clear that this administration was ticking off every item that it could in Project 2025; hell, they even have a plan for 2026 now. If that wasn’t enough, plenty of writers and thinkers—primarily those of color, including yours truly—have been saying for months (and really since before the election) that things would be bad beyond belief under 47 and his puppetmasters and sycophants. Yet despite watching it play out week by week for a year and us continuing to warn y’all, it is only in the last few days when a nice white lady historian from Maine by the name of Heather Cox Richardson spoke up that it really seemed to get people’s attention.
Let me just say that I read Richardson’s stuff and have for a while, and as a political historian she does a stellar job and speaks to her audience. I admire her work. However, it pains me that it wasn’t until her video following the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the threats to seize Venezuela’s oil—in which she stated that we only have until May to get this train back on the tracks—that people really seem to grasp how bad things really are.
I don’t want to make this about race; I never want to. Yet, our racial biases often determine whose voices we hear and whose voices we listen to, especially when bad things have been happening and yet we still feel privileged in a shit storm. In the last year, millions of Americans have called their congressional delegations and millions have turned up in the streets but at last count, less than 10 million people still turned out at the largest No Kings Rally in October. While there is a theory that it only takes a small percentage of dedicated folks to move the needle, I suspect in a country as large, diverse and complex as the United States, numbers matter and more people are needed.
I hope that everyone heeds the words of Heather Cox Richardson, but I want everyone to finally realize that we are in truly uncharted waters and saving ourselves is going to be a group effort that requires commitment. No one wants to lose their job or health care, but we are damn close to crossing over into full-on authoritarianism while maintaining a façade of normal. Now more than ever is the time to toss normal to the side and press all the buttons and make all the noise to keep ourselves from crossing over to a place where elections won’t be able to save us.
As much as it saddens me that so many read and heard the words of the many BIPOC and marginalized people who have been sounding alarm since before the man regained power but weren’t actually listening to those warnings, I am happy that someone whose voice they more powerfully identify with has finally caught their attention.
The question is: What are you going to do with that alarm? As Richardson said, call your delegates; call so often that the people answering will know who you are. But understand that we can’t solely rely on an impotent and scared group of people to save us. At some point, we will need to think about different tactics, as well as creating mutual aid for more people to participate in whatever is needed on the ground. We also need to be willing to listen to the voices of those who have been historically most harmed by this country and those who have already been targeted and impacted by the administration. There is a lot of wisdom from those whose survival has always required them to color outside the lines. Right now, too many of us are still coloring inside the lines, hoping that old ways of being will save us in a country where laws and norms no longer seem to exist.
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