Trump’s Failed Presidency
Contributing Author: Great Basin Joe
Trump’s failed presidency and a complicit Republican-led Congress have greatly diminished the lives of average Americans and the nation. Perhaps the key fiascos that have defined his presidency are the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), his economic policy, mass deportations, the Epstein files, and war. The thread that ties together these interwoven policies and events is their staggering malice and cruelty.
Big Beautiful Bill
The BBB delivers $1 trillion in tax cuts to the uber wealthy while cutting more than $1.1 trillion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, and other programs, jeopardizing food security and healthcare coverage for millions nationwide. Currently, over 900,000 Nevadans rely on Medicaid and cuts to ACA subsidies could result in up to 114,000 Nevadans losing healthcare. Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford called the BBB “Taking from the needy to give to the greedy isn’t leadership ─ it’s cruelty”. Moreover, the BBB will add over $5 trillion to the federal deficit and will significantly inhibit economic growth.
Economic Policy
In just 14 months, Trump 2.0 has left Americans struggling with increased costs of living due to unprecedented tariffs, more expensive health care, food, and energy costs, and fewer job opportunities. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation estimated Trump’s tariffs amounted to an average tax increase of $1,000 per U.S. household in 2025 and is expected to rise to $1,600 per household in 2026.
The West Help-Gallup Center reports that 1 in 3 Americans have cut basic expenses to afford healthcare. Over 50% of Americans enrolled in an ACA health insurance plan say they have or will cut spending on food and other basic household expenses to afford health care. Nevadans insured through Nevada Health Link, the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, face premium rate hikes of 26% in 2026, according to the state Division of Insurance.
The Trump administration promised to lower grocery prices on Day 1, yet on Day 365 food prices continue to reach record highs. In December 2025, food prices grew at their fastest monthly rate since autumn 2022. An Associate Press/NORC poll showed that grocery prices are a major source of stress for 53% of Americans.
In 2025, electricity prices increased 2.5 times more than the annual inflation rate, which is the highest annual increase since December 2014. Average natural gas prices also increased by 56% in 2025 from the 2024 annual average, despite President Trump’s promise to cut energy prices in half within his first 12 months.
Higher costs of living are coupled with job stagnation. The Trump administration’s first year in office marked the weakest job growth outside of a recession since 2003, with only 181,000 jobs added for the full year, compared with almost 1.5 million in 2024.
In 2025 the Department of Government Efficiency cut about 300,000 employees from the federal workforce, impacting social security, scientific research, climate monitoring, IRS tax processing, infrastructure, and transportation. In Veteran’s Affairs alone, 40,000 employees were cut, diminishing veteran healthcare quality, benefits, and research. In spite of all these cuts, government spending continues to rise.
As his failed economic policies play out, it is clear Trump is indifferent to the needs of everyday Americans.
Mass Deportations
Trump’s mass deportations, characterized by skyrocketing detentions, violent arrests, and troops in cities, is a pillar of his presidency. Trump has demonized migrants as people who are “animals”, “savages”, and have “bad genes”. Documented and undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens, mostly people of color, have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tear-gassed, tased, shot, and run over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Trump officials say they are prioritizing the arrest and deportation of migrants with criminal records. However, of the estimated 70,000 in detention centers as of mid-Feb 2026 , only about 1 in 10 have criminal records.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” increased ICE detention funding by over 300% to over $80 billion annually, roughly $25 billion more than annual funding of the U. S. Marine Corps. Roughly $45 billion is allocated to expanding ICE detention centers. Since Trump’s 2.0 inauguration, here are the data: 225 detention centers, 393,000 arrests, ~70,000 in detention centers (as of Feb. 7), 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025 and six in 2026, ~50,000 people in detention centers have no criminal convictions, and the majority of those arrested are of Mexican and Central America descent.
The three main ICE detention facilities in Nevada are the Nevada Southern Detention Center (Pahrump), Henderson Detention Center (Henderson), and Washoe County Jail (Reno). ICE is currently holding 554 people per day in its two Southern Nevada detention centers.
Epstein Files
The Epstein files consist of over 6 million pages of documents describing sex trafficking, pedophilia, rape, torture, femicide, cannibalism, and disappearance. Based on records unsealed in early 2026, Donald Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times in over 5,300 files, making him one of the most frequently referenced individuals. The Department of Justice continues to withhold FBI interview files containing Trump sexual misconduct allegations in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Iran War
Understand the extraordinary stupidity of this unconstitutional war.
The U.S. and Israel started a war that seemingly nobody can define and nobody can end. Thus far, the war is a déjà vu of the campaign to annihilate Gaza and its people. Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S. No plan was in place to deal with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil passes.
Oil runs the international economy. The war will cost everyone much more than higher gas prices. Oil is used in plastics, fertilizer, synthetic fabrics, asphalt, food packaging, freight costs and aviation fuel. Couple the disruption of Middle East fertilizer shipments with Trump’s tariff on Canadian potash, a crucial potassium-rich fertilizer for U.S. farmers, expect food prices to significantly rise along with gas prices.
Trump never consulted our traditional global allies of the attack. After waging trade wars against them, and with no clear objectives for the war, not surprisingly allies have hesitated to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open when asked by Trump. The war has spread beyond the Middle East, involving 20 countries, and has displaced nearly 4.5 million people in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Trump was not concerned when informed that Russia is providing Iran with satellite imagery, tactical data, and targeting intelligence to strike U.S. military personnel and installations. Moreover, he has eased sanctions on both Russian and Iranian oil, helping our adversaries. For Russia, this action helps fund Putin’s war on democracy in Ukraine, and for Iran, it pumps an estimated $14 billion into their economy and its war machine. It seems our Commander-in-Chief is also fighting a war against his own country.
The war costs Americans nearly $2.0 billion per day, and the administration is asking for $200 billion more. Think what this money could have brought to U.S. healthcare, schools, infrastructure, and food assistance.
Trump says he will “have the honor” of taking Cuba next.
The Real America First
Americans are seeing the real ‘America First’ and ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda ─ militarism, imperialism, authoritarianism, and immorality interwoven by malignant intent. Government ineptness and dysfunction are eroding national morale, worsening daily life, risking and costing lives, and destroying our global credibility. We should all be repulsed by it.
To paraphrase David Rothkopf, ‘not since Adolf Hitler has one inhumane, psychotic man shattered a country, global stability, and the global economy into such madness’.