The opening weeks of the second Trump administration have roiled the waters of American society in unprecedented ways. Trump’s deployment of his presidential power through hundreds of Executive Orders and other administrative actions have constituted not a faithful execution of the laws of the United States, but an abrupt departure from sound constitutional order. The summary firings of federal employees, spiteful purges of respected top military personnel and the shuttering of entire agencies have been described in many telling ways: as a political rampage, a barrage of lawlessness, a flurry of disruption and reckless norm-busting.
Built as it is on a bed of lies and distortions, the president’s agenda is all of that and more. So much has changed so fast through this evident strategy of “flooding the zone” that most observers are left breathless, overwhelmed and thoroughly off balance by this blitz. Many are simply at a loss for comprehending the scale of this assault upon democratic principles, the dismantling of vital public institutions and the rollback of previous progress toward social justice and inclusion.
A complete litany of Trump’s violations of laws and revered norms would fill more space than available here. The question worth asking in this forum is: What “value added” may a theological ethicist contribute in these days of crisis? An integral component of the ethicist’s vocation is the task of shedding needed light on moral aspects of current developments in our public life, including momentous shifts in governmental affairs like those we have witnessed in recent weeks. At our best, we ethicists are capable of providing conceptual clarity and proposing salient categories and principled standards that speak to the political and social challenges of the day.
One of these categories is legitimacy. It is one thing to win a contested election and assume public office; another to utilize the resultant power in accord with valuable democratic norms, a sense of prudent restraint, and due deference to the rule of law. Citizens of a constitutional republic have a right to expect those qualities in their elected leaders, and Americans are accustomed to witnessing such democratic virtues in administrations of all parties, even when policy disagreements and some measure of rancor might linger in the wake of a given election cycle.
But in the dystopian clamor of the past weeks, the levers of government have been deployed in ways that exceed all the previous limits upon authority and throw off all the guardrails. We have been subjected to a “shock and awe campaign” intended to intimidate us into quiet submission. These three observations capture major features of what we have witnessed since January 20:
1) Within the chaos is cruelty–think of the sweeping firings of thousands of competent government officials by the Orwellian-named “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and the freezing or outright elimination of critical funding that millions of people (not to mention, many academic and scientific researchers) rely upon.
2) Within the upheavals are blatant injustices—think of the bulldozing of procedural safeguards that prevent cronyism and conflicts of interests, especially in the dismissal of a score of Inspectors General at federal agencies. Without these key independent watchdogs, administrators are free to operate without oversight, indulging corrupt impulses to line their own pockets with impunity. Elon Musk and his companies possess billions in contracts with the federal government and now face sharply reduced oversight to prevent favoritism and malfeasance. Trump appointee Dr. Mehmet Oz now oversees huge public programs like Medicare and Medicaid that do business with private corporations to which he has close financial interests.
3) Within the orbit of the wrecking ball are clear elements of a constitutional crisis that threatens the rights (and in some cases the very lives) of Americans and our neighbors around the world. As just one example, the precipitous dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development has left millions of worthy recipients, particularly in drought-stricken East Africa, without desperately needed supplies, while stocks of life-saving food and medicine rot in storage facilities. Cutting off congressionally-approved appropriations like this is a clear violation of U.S. law.
At stake are core ethical questions, dealing with the fundamentals of right social order and the urgency of responding to disturbances of that just order. It has been centuries (think King George III of England, or perhaps the Southern planter aristocracy) since the people of the U.S. have had to deal with the hazards of autocracy and such displays of unaccountable power. I fear that our fading “muscle memory” may not be fully up to the task of resistance. When Trump takes yet another page out of the autocratic playbook, will we collectively meet the moment through vocal protest rising up from the grassroots? Or will we yield to despair and fatalism as the ethical violations come to be normalized? Will we see these betrayals of our values and laws as mostly a “Washington problem” that won’t really touch our lives—until it is too late?
Nobody has a reliable crystal ball regarding such matters, but considerable signs of hope are already apparent. The most blatantly unconstitutional of the administration’s first round of Executive Orders were quickly challenged in courts, where lawsuits objecting to Trump’s fiats enjoyed frequent success. Other instances of pushback in the form of public protests, labor union actions, and angry voter town halls (generally targeting congressional Republicans returning to their districts) demonstrated that resistance quickly gained significant altitude. We have already seen the reinstatement of a few suspended programs, certain reversals of wanton firings of essential government employees and policy corrections of the most egregious, callous blunders of DOGE carried out in the name of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. A few opposition voices have used explicitly religious language to protest the dehumanization of our national life and priorities. Would that terms like solidarity and common good, phrases with rich Christian resonance, find their way more frequently into the discourse of voices of anti-Trump opposition and even agitation. Such a development (especially if supported by prominent church leaders) would certainly bring encouragement to Christian ethicists throughout our land.
Already heard in American public discourse are expressions of impatience for the end of this administration, to the point that some are conducting a public count-down of the days, months and years (unfortunately, still closer to four than three) until this presidency ends. How will we hold on for so long? A worthy priority in the interval will be the protection of the most vulnerable, to prevent them from suffering further damage to their wellbeing. We need to “say their names,” to acknowledge our neighbors facing serious suffering. Although it is generally wise to avoid comparing the hardships of various parties, I will venture to identify three vulnerable groups who are most on my mind.
First, minority groups of all sorts desperately need copious legal and material protection of many varieties. In the present political environment, LGBTQ Americans are in danger of losing hard-won rights, as are members of ethnic minorities and such religious minorities as Muslim Americans. The demonization and targeting have been quite blatant since the 2024 election, which seems to have created a “permission structure” for unleashing culture-war scapegoating upon the powerless. In its rush to translate right-wing talking points (such as opposition to DEI initiatives) into federal policy, this administration is likely to place many in dire circumstances. With the appointment and inexplicable Senate confirmation of so many unqualified and ideologically-driven heads of departments and agencies, those in leadership positions will surely exacerbate these tendencies rather than abate them.
Second, there is little doubt that the list of those suffering grave harm will extend beyond our borders. Wherever the shadow of U.S. power falls, new harms will be inflicted by a foreign policy suddenly without restraint or moral compass. The people of Ukraine are perhaps foremost among these victims, facing a stinging betrayal at the hands of a U.S. president who refuses to guarantee their security, bringing shame on the U.S. and potentially fatal blows to the sovereignty of that proud embattled nation. Almost overnight, Trump turned the U.S. into an accomplice to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Add to this category the millions of people affected by U.S. migration policy in the months and years ahead: those seeking a better life who will be adversely affected by immigration enforcement and mass deportations, those who will be treated unfairly by a suddenly cruel warping in the application of existing federal policies. [See the February 2025 CTEWC North America Forum entry by Janna Hunter-Bowman for ample details regarding these concerns]. The abandonment of commitments to humane treatment of many people both at home and abroad will have enough life-and-death consequences to make any ethicist shiver.
Third, the reelection of Trump constitutes very bad news for our fragile environment. Hours after an inaugural address that included the phrase “Drill, baby, drill,” the new president withdrew the U.S. from the international climate change accords. He has rolled back environmental standards and curtailed government investments in renewable energy in favor of accelerated fossil fuel development. By gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and appointing the climate-change skeptic Lee Zeldin [1] as its head, Trump signaled his disregard (if not disdain) for anti-pollution efforts and clean alternative energy sources. The long-term results will surely include accelerated greenhouse emissions and a more rapid depletion of the “carbon budget” that might prevent us from exceeding a disastrous rise in global temperatures in the coming years.
Whatever our time horizon, it is easy to agree that Trump’s misuse of executive power has made the world a more dangerous place. In publicly musing about taking over Greenland, Panama, Gaza, Mexico, and Canada, he has demonstrated a lack of respect for the sovereign rights of the people of other lands. But by flouting so many legal constraints and aggressively overreaching executive powers domestically, Trump has encroached on the rights of all Americans as well. These violations of ethical principles threaten our democracy and corrode the rule of law and the political values we have long affirmed. What remains to be seen is whether the resistance to these alarming developments will be strong enough to thwart this lamentable retreat from America’s democratic traditions and practice.
This forum posting was submitted March 3, 2025 and its content does not reflect events subsequent to that date.
Works Cited
[1] Seth Borenstein, “Scientists Scorn EPA Push to Say Climate Change Isn’t a Danger, Say Just Look around at the World,” Boston Globe, 27 Feb. 2025, at: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/27/nation/scientists-scorn-epa-push-say-climate-change-isnt-danger-say-just-look-around-world/