Undoing Trump’s Numerous Failures

Undoing Trump’s Numerous Failures

Donald Trump has had one hell of bad second term to date. His Big Beautiful Bill has gutted US healthcare and left the nation with a staggering increase in deficit debt… and that was before his massive Iran WAR miscalculation. His climate change policy – “hoax” driven falsehood – has left our American carmakers at a massive international competitive loss to China with federal policies making us look more like a backward, third-world country. Our resulting environmental pullback has made air and water pollution edge towards previous dangerous levels of toxicity. Allowing RFK, Jr’s conspiracy theories to dominate our HHS and CDC medical contractions as once eradicated diseases, like measles, have returned to infect and kill; HHS antivaxxers have redefined “acceptable” medical science.

Trump’s bully tactics, his territorial claims against Canada and Greenland and his constant put-down of allied leaders as he embraced autocrats everywhere, perhaps irretrievably alienating “allies,” were compounded with his inexplicably cruel immigration policies that have wasted billions and billions of taxpayer dollars with strong negative economic results. His exceptionally ineffective DOGE purges of federal payrolls saved nothing but hampered an otherwise effective workforce. Funding cuts to research, attacks against once prolific prestigious universities, the false use of “antisemitism” as an excuse to decimate those schools, and the rampant attack on major law firms as agents of change for the better have paralleled his hollowing out of federal lawyers, eliminating so many simply on perceived disloyalty to him… have crippled so many once-extraordinary bastions of excellence that once made the United States stand high.

The world has reacted to Trump glaring failures by pushing Trump-like politicians out of office (Hungary’s Orban) and moving liberals to new positions of power (Canada’s Carney). So, with so much wrong with Trump’s double-down failures, I asked myself what a well-implemented “big fix” might look like. So, here’s my take on those repairs, assuming America is even willing to admit it made a massive error in reelecting an autocrat tyrant wannabe, who has decimated our nation.

Climate Change. To me, this is priority one. It may be too late, but the recent spate of “natural disasters” screams the necessity of change. All of Trump’s efforts to reverse or deny climate change must instantly be reversed. Subsidies for alternative energy, restoring cancelled energy programs and scientific expertise (NOAA, Weather Service, etc.) must be restored. As red state Wyoming illustrates, this should not be a partisan issue.

Tax and Tariff Policies. Repeal the Big Beautiful Bill in its entirety. Base tariffs taking only these factors into consideration: balance foreign industries that survive only because of government subsidies and embrace true reciprocity. Recognize that except for very complex technologies, the US just might not be the most appropriate place for a renewed emphasis on manufacturing. Encourage high-end foreign manufacturers to locate facilities here.

As other nations (Canada) have successfully done, allowing for up to $5 million exemptions for intergenerational inheritance of farmland and marital property, repeal estate taxes in their entirety. We desperately need to stop perpetuating the growing massive disparity in wealth and income; it has killed upward mobility and rendered only the rich with true political power. Except as noted above, inheritance should be treated as income.

Healthcare. It’s time we stop kidding ourselves: universal healthcare, now available as a right in every other developed nation on Earth, is cheaper, more efficient and more humane than the US system. It is a social program, not “creeping socialism” as rightwingers are wont to tell us. We spend far more per capita on healthcare than any other developed nation (17%+ of GDP) with a lower average standard of care than many third world countries. The middlemen and corporate profiteers have made a mockery of the term “American healthcare.” We still can retain private insurers as administrators with a cap on fees if we must. But an uncapped version of Medicare, with no “donut hole” for medications, should be available to all Americans.

Military Policies & Expenditures. Congress’ power to wage war, clearly established in Article I of our Constitution, must be restored and reinforced to cover conflicts we initiate that could lead to war as well. As clearly illustrated by our asymmetrical losses (“failure to prevail”) in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and recently in Iran, our massive military superiority simply does not get the job done in most of the armed conflicts we have faced in recent years. We need to continue building defensive systems, and our cybersecurity is a joke. Massive aircraft carriers ($15B+, excluding aircraft, crews and necessary escort ships) have not been able to defeat hidden mobile missile launch platforms, mines, cheap drones and very small swift boats. If one carrier were taken out, that could be a $50B hit to our nation. Look at how much damage was inflicted by the fire on the USS Lincoln. We’ve wasted billions as we have depleted our mega-expensive munitions on a WAR that seems endless. We also need to stop subsidizing Israeli arms; they can afford to pay full price (as most of our allies do). We also have to learn that where there is a divergence between US and Israeli goals, we need to protect US values over Israeli priorities. We need to have a modern and effective military, not just a big, archaic and mega-expensive vestige of the past. Our military is an unjustified amplifier of national deficit that can no longer be tolerated.

Rebuild, restore alliances and admit our mistakes to our long-term allies. Everyone knows we screwed up. Our power and influence have plunged. Our allies are meeting without us, figuring how to move forward and sidestep what they see as a rogue nation, where political cronyism rules, where the “rule of law” (where no one is above the law) is fading in favor of “rule by law” (where a privileged elite call the shots) and where election rigging has become an American national sport. Congress can no longer be a rubber stamp for appointments by an angry cult leader. We have terrible leadership at so many federal agencies, as fact-averse, doctrinaire zealots and conspiracy theorists have replaced neutral, science-based leaders with common sense and a notion of representing all Americans. The Supreme Court needs to stop issuing shadow docket rulings without any published logical reasoning. And…

I’m Peter Dekom, and I suspect all of the above can be summarized by reversing and giving true meaning to the misused phrase, “Make America Great Again.”