How To Ruin a Country's Image, Economy, and Global Standing in Six Easy Steps

Newsweek

2 days ago

President Donald Trump's first four months in office have brought a whirlwind of unprecedented actions. There have been so many missteps, fumblings, cruel implementations, and pure folly, it would take an entire column to list them all.
While this column has often analyzed methodologically precise polling data, today I set out to synthesize, very unscientifically, what I've been hearing from business and legal colleagues, along with social contacts, about the Trump presidency's most consequential—and egregious—actions to date. The following list is by no means exhaustive of this administration's horrendous policies and ridiculous conduct. But these six items are perhaps the most destructive of our country's image, economy, and contributions to the rest of the world.
1. Eliminating USAID
For all the chaos it caused, DOGE was unsuccessful in eliminating meaningful amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government. Elon Musk went after critical government programs without any recognition of the important roles they play, or any overarching rationale. First among these programs was USAID, which for a tiny slice of the federal budget accomplished a great deal to save lives, fighting disease around the world (in part to prevent maladies from reaching our shores) while projecting a very positive humanitarian image for the U.S. Now we are left with the image of the richest person on Earth cutting off life-saving programs, undoubtedly causing innocent people to die and giving China an opening to enhance its global standing through soft-touch foreign policy of its own.
Is there any possible cure? It's a huge long shot, but if Senate Democrats end up with any leverage in the budget reconciliation process, maybe they can restore USAID funding in a way that makes it extremely difficult for the executive branch to cut it again.
2. Medical and Scientific Research
The Trump administration has taken a machete to American medical and scientific research, slashing grants to elite universities, disease and biological research funding at the National Institutes of Health, and Food and Drug Administration staffers who conduct cutting-edge therapeutic drug oversight and approval. It is also actively intimidating the best and brightest of international science students away from believing they can make their careers in the United States. There is no meaningful political constituency for any of these actions—they are illogical in the extreme. Not only do they impede vital scientific research; they allow other countries to gain leadership in areas the United States has long dominated.
As with USAID funding cuts, unless Senate Democrats end up with some leverage in debt ceiling negotiations and demand that multi-year grants be both reinstated and guaranteed for the future, it is hard to see how this action can be undone. Even if Harvard and other universities win their court actions for previous grants to be reinstated, it would be beyond the reach of those court cases to require future funding.
3. IRS Staff Cuts
The Trump administration is planning to lay off about 40,000 IRS workers, or about 40 percent of the agency's entire staff. This move would fully undermine the agency's ability to collect the tax revenue that forms the largest portion of the federal government's budget. Less IRS scrutiny of the largest taxpayers will only amplify the revenue shortfall. Against the backdrop of a treasury market that is already getting more nervous about the creditworthiness of the United States, the recent decision by Moody's to reduce the country's credit rating, and a budget bill which is certain to increase the size of the federal debt, demolishing the IRS is nothing short of fiscal malpractice. Again, there is no policy justification for this decision whatsoever—it just diminishes the government's resources at a time when reducing the budget deficit is a policy goal of Democrats and Republicans alike.
The good news is that this one is incredibly easy to fix. The bad news is that Republicans in Congress are very likely to make sure it doesn't happen.
President Donald Trump takes questions outside the West Wing of White House in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2025.
President Donald Trump takes questions outside the West Wing of White House in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2025.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
4. Ukraine
The input I received on this one was pretty unanimous. Trump's stated goal of stopping the killing is one all support—but pursuing it in a way that rewards Russia for disrespecting the borders of a sovereign nation and committing war crimes is absolutely contrary to what the United States stands for. It is very clear that Putin has no interest in a reasonable settlement of the conflict, and that the only way to bring about an end to the war is for Trump to apply enormous pressure by making clear we will maintain military and intelligence support for Ukraine. A world where Russia faces no meaningful restraint on its military aggression is a scary one.
Plenty of Republicans in Congress want to see support for Ukraine continue. But it is very unlikely they will force the administration's hand. Failing that, the only restraint on Trump is the specter of a collapse of Ukraine playing out similarly to the way the American withdrawal from Afghanistan damaged perception of the Biden administration.
5. Eliminating Due Process
The Trump administration believes students legally in the United States can be plucked off the street by masked men and deported without any kind of due process. Its vision for America reeks of elements of an authoritarian police state where basic civil liberties are not protected. While the cases that have been grabbing headlines so far involve noncitizens, if basic due process protections can be ignored, American citizens' own due process rights will soon come into question. Almost everyone in my informal survey gave Trump credit for closing the U.S.-Mexico border, but strongly suspected that the "cruelty was the point" of the administration's deportations, and that the federal government under Trump desires to create the broad perception that it does not have to be constrained by civil liberties protections.
Fortunately, many in my feedback group believed that the Supreme Court will get this one right, and that we will see a rebuke of the Trump administration's actions when these issues are finally substantively addressed by the Court.
6. Tariffs
Trump's tariff policies have changed so many times, with so many different rationales, that I heard many different views as to where they might end up. The one consistent thought was that, in the longer term, Trump would impose some remnant of the tariffs on major trading partners, affecting consumer prices for a not-insignificant number of goods. While it is unclear how much inflation tariffs will ultimately cause, this haphazard, seat-of-the-pants approach will surely fuel at least some. The one consistent view was that the economy would have been much stronger if the Trump administration had never imposed tariffs at all, and that we will see no meaningful manufacturing job creation in the U.S. from any of this.
There are several ways the tariff damage could be undone. Courts might rule that the emergency authority Trump seized to implement these tariffs is not actually authorized by statute. Also, market reaction to further tariff moves may cause Trump to retreat to the point that the effect of any tariff actions is fairly nominal.
It is pretty doubtful that Congress will act to remedy the four problems that it has the ability to cure. It is somewhat more possible we will see reversals in the last two areas—due process and tariffs. The bottom line, however, is that these six massive missteps, if not reversed, may ruin some of the greatest aspects of our country, our image, our economy, and our contributions to the world.
Tom Rogers is executive chairman of Claigrid, Inc. (the cloud AI grid company), an editor-at-large for Newsweek, the founder of CNBC and a CNBC contributor. He also established MSNBC, is the former CEO of TiVo, a member of Keep Our Republic (an organization dedicated to preserving the nation's democracy). He is also a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Democracy.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.