Collision course

The year Trump caused havoc in the US - and the world

- David Smith Washington

It was a wake-up call for America. In January, Donald Trump took the oath of office, declared himself "saved by God to make America great again" and issued a barrage of executive orders.

In the ensuing months he and his allies moved at breakneck speed and seemed indomitable. But as 2025 draws to a close with Trump struggling to stay awake at meetings, the prevailing image is of a driver asleep at the wheel. Opinion polls suggest Americans are turning against him. Republicans are heading for the exit ahead of congressional contests next November that look bleak for the party.

"He came into office and, like a blitzkrieg, was violating laws and the constitution," said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. "The American political process is slow moving and so he was able to do things that were extraordinary.

"But this is a guy whose legacy may well be the political collapse of Republicans in this era. Put another way, rather than asking who is going to be the inheritor of the Trump mantle and the so-called Maga movement, we may be talking in a year or so about which candidates can escape the odious distinction of having been connected with Trump."

Emboldened by his political comeback in the 2024 election, Trump hit the ground running. On his first day in office he pardoned nearly everyone involved in the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021 and launched a radical expansion of executive power, a systematic retribution campaign against perceived adversaries, and an overhaul of domestic and foreign policy. A government-wide restructuring under the "department of government efficiency" (Doge) led by the billionaire Elon Musk resulted in mass federal layoffs and dismantling of agencies such as USAID. But Trump and Musk fell out and Doge burned itself out.