It'll be hard to rebuild what Trump is wrecking

The all-purpose adage offering optimism-and sometimes pessimism-to those confronting a crisis head-on is: "This too shall pass."

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THE PRESIDENT'S undermining of federal employment, the law and the economy could be lasting obstacles. Above, Lafayette Park near the White House.

One gets the impression that this is a crutch favored by some major institutions that have capitulated to Donald Trump's demands - such as universities that have committed to fines and payouts stretching out beyond the end of Trump's current (and final) term, and law firms that have made nebulous commitments to represent Trump's favored litigants in cases that may not even be brought until after the 2028 elections.

Some institutions and services that have suffered major cuts in government funding may be tempted to hunker down, covering what they think may be a temporary shortfall in the expectation that a subsequent administration will restore the withheld funding and cover their interim losses.

Recovery, however, may be tougher than they think.

I reached out to some of my most trusted contacts in science, medicine, labor and other fields, hoping to hear encouragement that the current situation will be fleeting and it isn't too soon to look ahead; Trump's presidential term, after all, is finite.

I ended up with a string of the gloomiest conversations in my long careerand I've covered two foreign civil wars and more stock market crashes and economic slumps than I can count. (Well, let's say more than a dozen.) "We're still in free fall and people are still in a 'shock and awe' phase," said vaccinologist Peter Hotez, who has written to defend sound science throughout Trump's terms. "What's happening right now is continuing to evolve, and we don't really know where it's going. It's important not to take the attitude of 'this too will pass,' hunker down for a couple of years and then it will go back to the way it was." The administration's cuts in biomedical research funding, the "continuing ascendance of the MAHA movement" Robert F.