One Year In
(And the Future Looks Bleak)
Today marks one full year since Donald Trump supposedly won the office of the United States presidency. Again.
I say “supposedly” because I find it nearly impossible to believe America could sink so low (not to mention the involvement of Elon Musk and Starlink), and yet here we are, despite all the lies and bad policies, the hush money schemes, the immature name-calling and derogatory comments, the nonexistent healthcare plan, two impeachments, thirty-four felony convictions, the sexual assault conviction, and oh yeah, let’s not forget the incitement of a fucking insurrection.
Apparently, none of that was enough to cancel this deranged orange narcissist. None of that was the wake-up call for the greater majority of Americans to stand up and say “enough!” Instead, they looked at him and saw themselves. They became more emboldened to be horrible people, to be racists and misogynists and homophobes. Trump was a mirror to all the worst parts of themselves, and they loved it.
One year into this nightmare shitshow of a presidency and he’s renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, held a military parade (at taxpayers expense) on his birthday, ended birthright citizenship via executive order, kidnapped the president of a foreign country and stolen its oil, added his name to the Kennedy Center after declaring himself Chairman of the Board, demolished the East Wing of the White House without approval, and he’s personally pocketed over 1.4 billion dollars in various schemes that would’ve easily gotten any other president impeached.
On top of that, prices of groceries and housing are skyrocketing, measles are back in a big way, healthcare is unaffordable for millions, people are being kidnapped, dragged from their homes and cars, beaten, tear-gassed, and shot by his Gestapo ICE army (check out the ICElist), and as I write this, we’re on the brink of war with our greatest allies, all to stroke one spoiled man’s fragile ego because he wants what he wants, logic be damned.
Are we great again, America?
While most presidents would probably be asleep, Trump was up at 1am last night tweeting AI generated cartoons of himself planting a U.S. flag on Greenland, his two yes-men (Vance and Rubio) looking much smaller behind him, and there’s a wooden sign that states, “Greenland, US Territory since 2026.” As an American, I can honestly say this is utterly embarrassing, and fundamentally wrong on so many levels.
Leaders of Denmark, Greenland, and countless other European nations have all told Trump no, Greenland is not for sale, nor is it to be bargained for, and yet, he persists. But like I said in a recent post on X: “Telling a rapist ‘no’ rarely works.” Especially when said rapist is an entitled, spoiled rich kid who now sits in the most powerful office in the world. Or is it? I’m not so sure anymore. It’s certainly not the greatest.
And anyway, where are all those checks and balances I’ve heard about my entire life? Apparently, they were just fiction, something we told ourselves to sleep better at night, because the alternative – a mad king who would run the country not on policy or law or even popularity, but his own selfish whims - was simply ridiculous. It would never happen. Well kids, as the old saying goes – never say never.
Every day, I wake up with this feeling of existential dread as I reach for my cellphone to check the news, wondering what atrocities this administration is committing now. And every day there’s usually more than one. Until recently, I’ve been trying to remain optimistic about the future of the United States, hoping that if we can just make it to the midterms, we’ll be able to turn the tide and find some form of salvation. But after the cold-blooded murder of Renee Nicole Good, an American citizen, by Trump’s I.C.E. goons, and the administration’s immediate response to label her a “domestic terrorist” despite ANY evidence to back that up, I’m no longer an optimist.
I’ve lost hope. For this nation. For the people in it.
With three more years to go, and apparently no one in a position of power willing or able to stop Trump, I fear the United States of America, as we’ve known it most of our lives, will be unrecognizable, if it even exists at all, come January 2029, when Trump’s term is up.
Whatever may happen in the next three years, whatever horrors we’ll have to face, we’ll face them together. But the time to prepare is now. Prepare to flee to safer nations or prepare to fight to preserve this one. Either way, I have a strong feeling life is about to get a hell of a lot harder for everyone.