Documenting the Damage: 100 Harmful Policies from the First 100 Days of Trump's Second Term
The second Trump administration has had the busiest first 100 days of any US presidency in nearly a century. Since January, I've been keeping a spreadsheet documenting 900+ policy changes and political developments. I then bundled many of the most important changes into 100 topics areas and wrote a summary of each of them, providing a semi-comprehensive account of the tremendous changes to US politics which have occurred.
PDF version of the full report
Website version of the full report
Medium versions:
Introduction + Part I: Democracy and Government
Part II: Civil Rights and Liberties
Part III: Economy and Public Services
Part IV: Environment and Energy
Part V + Conclusion: Foreign Policy
Folks, this is an incredible piece of journalism reflecting a tremendous amount of research, effort, and thought.
It's completely free, brilliantly made, and I am incredulous that it had been so narrowly shared on Tumblr.
I am in awe of what Brett has done here. Please click through and read at least some of this because I think people are really missing out on what an incredible tool this is.
It's a quick reference, it's an archive (it's SO rich in sources and references), it's an explainer, and it is a point-by-point means of de-normalizing the trump administration to anyone in your life who thinks things aren't that bad.
Part of what both trump admins have done, and that the second one has been very, very successful at, is running a shock and awe campaign of things that are so overwhelming and awful that people check out because they can't maintain attention for the continual hammering of information. What Brett has done here is an absurd feat of attention, keeping on top of the tidal wave and breaking it down so that we can see the actions of the administration in plain black and white without the feeling of being pummeled by increasingly panicked news stories.
There are a ton of things to panic about, to take immediate action about, to be outraged about - you shouldn't feel guilty about missing an HHS rule change while you're protesting ICE or having your gender erased - but part of why this document is so impressive is that it DID keep track of those changes and rollbacks that are blips in the news cycle, and it did so pretty much in real time. The fact that it was completed so soon after the first 100 days is staggering, and it's so incredibly useful to have this as a reference NOW instead of as a retrospective five years after the fact.
Really. Seriously. This is so fantastic. Please take a look at it.
It's not comforting, it IS alarming, and it is nonetheless one of the most approachable and motivating in-depth pieces of political journalism I've ever seen.
