How to Lose Friends and the Exercise of Influence Over Others

There are many ways to characterize President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Words such as chaos are the overarching description. More specifically, we can label Trump a disrupter, unpredictable, unreliable, punitive, closed-minded, egotistical, and, perhaps, most apropos—a bully.

Unethical Actions

The handwriting was on the wall when Trump fired 18 inspector generals (IGs) across some of the most vital Cabinet agencies, along with the heads of the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. These two IGs and the two independent offices were created to investigate complaints from whistleblowers and employees and to oversee ethics rules for the White House as well as to provide an independent check on executive power at the agency level. It's ironic to say that Trump’s first action was unethical because he dismantled the structure that oversees ethical behavior in the executive branch.

Trump likes to engage in transactional relationships that are based solely on reciprocity. No consideration is given to morals, ethics, or any principle. There is no emotional component or personal investment to a transactional relationship. The parties do not have to like or respect one another. We could say that Trump’s relationship with Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, is a transactional one. When either or both parties no longer” feel it is worthwhile,” the relationship is dissolved, and no further interactions is desired nor expected.

Trump tends to make decisions first and then consider the consequences, as with the tariffs. From an ethical perspective, the President has it backwards. Ethical people consider how their actions and decisions might affect others before acting. In Trump’s world, the end justifies the means. He doesn’t seem to care who he might harm along the way. CNN reports that 121,000 federal workers have been laid off or targeted for layoffs in three months since Trump’s second term began, according to their analysis of official statements, internal memos from government officials and news reports. It’s a vast amount that doesn’t count those placed on administrative leave or who took voluntary buyouts.

Economic Concerns

The fallout of the sweeping layoffs has already had a ripple effect across the U.S. and raises questions about the government’s capacity to meet public needs when it comes to education, healthcare, transportation and public safety, experts told CNN. The threats to essential services that Americans depend on have sparked concerns about the future. Concerns about the nation’s economy have grown, according to a CNN poll, with 55% saying his cuts to federal programs will do economic harm.

Americans split evenly over whether economic conditions a year from now will be good (49%) or poor (51%), but the share saying they expect the economy to be in bad shape a year from now is up 7 points since January, just before Trump took office. Jitters on Wall Street about Trump’s economic policies have sent the stock market into a decline, and Trump has given mixed messages on whether he believes it’s possible the economy is headed into a recession.

About half of the public, 51%, say they think Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions and just 28% say they have improved things. Another 21% say they’ve had no effect on the economy. Of course, the debacle with the tariffs rollout has added to these results.

Tariffs

The tariff action by Trump appears to have affected both friend and foe alike. It’s fair to say that countries which once relied on us for trade and military support are questioning whether it’s time to move on and seek new economic, political, and military partners. Here again, Trump has spent the first 100 days pissing off a lot of leaders of countries to no avail. Our relationship with our European partners has been fractured to say the least. China did not back away from leveling its own tariffs on U.S. goods. Trump has had to walk the tariff plans back in part because it was causing havoc on the stock market. Xi Jinping has gained the upper hand. Trump miscalculated his ability to bully the bully.

According to Kimberley Strassel writing for the Wall Street Journal, Trump “decided to turn the threat of tariffs (a powerful negotiating tool) into a real, live bomb and the center of his economic policy—rather than his powerful deregulatory actions, his economy-boosting tax cuts, or his promising plan to make America the world’s energy powerhouse.” The result has been extreme volatility in the stock market. He seems to blame Federal Reserve Chairperson Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates. Here again, Trump is trying to bully a government official into capitulation. The problem is the Fed is supposed to be independent of the three branches of government and should act in accordance with sound economic policy.

End the War

Before his presidential election win last fall, Donald Trump famously boasted that he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine on “day one” of his second term in office. Reaching a ceasefire agreement during the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency, let alone a peace deal, has arguably proven much harder than he expected. Trump has turned his back on his initial comment, saying he was joking. In reality, Trump has learned it is difficult to out-bully a bully, and Putin has gained the upper-hand.

Trump has also been unsuccessful in creating a pathway for peace between Israel and Hamas. There has been no ceasefire, and none seems to be in the offering. Since the collapse of the ceasefire deal on March 18, 2025, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has restarted its offensive on Gaza, killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, and imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid. Hamas, for its part, has resumed launching rockets and missiles at Israel, while the Yemen-based Houthis are once again targeting Israel and U.S. assets. No additional hostages have been released, as renewed hostilities have dramatically increased the risk to their physical security. Meanwhile, the IDF has returned to prior positions in the Gaza Strip.

Though Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are the most responsible for the war’s resumption, U.S. President Donald Trump deserves significant blame for the renewed hostilities due to his mismanagement of negotiations to extend the ceasefire. Specifically, the Trump administration failed to make any discernible progress on the conditions for entering the second phase of the deal, at which point the cessation of hostilities would have become permanent.

Executive Orders

President Trump has issued 142 executive orders in his first 100 days. Basically, he believes a President can supersede the will of the people—as reflected in Congressional actions—and he believes he can do whatever he thinks is in the best interests of the country. The problem is the U.S. has a tripartite government, a system where political power is divided among three distinct branches: the legislative (responsible for making laws), the executive (responsible for enforcing laws), and the judicial (responsible for interpreting laws). This separation of powers is designed to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful. There can be no doubt that Trump has turned his back on the balance of powers that has stood the test of time.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

If you are not familiar with the acronym, DOGE, where have you been for the past 100 days? Elon Musk is the leader of the DOGE, which has largely taken control of the Office of Personnel and Management. Doge has cut jobs at nearly every federal agency, canceled thousands of contracts and taken control of computer systems that run the government.

There can be no doubt that there is bloat, inefficiency and even fraud across government agencies. DOGE is trying to eliminate it, partly by cutting jobs and programs. By all accounts, DOGE has a long way to go to meet its budget-cutting goals.

Musk will be stepping aside to run more of his business interests. However, it is expected that DOGE will continue on in some form or another. According to Scott Patterson and Ken Thomas of the Wall Street Journal, a “February 19 executive order instructed agency leaders to begin rescinding ‘unlawful regulations.’” Agencies are expected to “report regulations they deem unconstitutional and that impose ‘significant costs upon private parties’ that aren’t outweighed by public benefits, among other things.” Moreover, “agencies were also told to ‘deprioritize’ enforcement of regulations based on anything other than the best reading of the statute.”

These actions to be taken by DOGE are sure to be challenged as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. However, the President's duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" (Article II, Section 3) implies the authority to manage the executive branch, including the federal workforce. The Article vests the President with executive power, including the authority to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," and his power is further elaborated in statutes like 5 U.S.C. Chapter 9, which allows the President to reorganize agencies and eliminate certain positions with limited legislative oversight, such as one-house Congressional veto. While the President has broad authority to manage the executive branch, Congress retains some oversight. For instance, reorganization plans are subject to a one-house Congressional veto. We should expect some actions by DOGE to be challenged by Congress and in the courts. 

Illegal Immigration

This is the big win for President Trump and an area where he kept his promise to the American public while running for office. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), during the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, ICE has arrested 66,463 undocumented immigrants and removed 65,682 aliens. Three in four arrests were criminal undocumented immigrants, putting the worst first, including 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, 18th Street and other gangs. Additionally, 1,329 were accused or convicted of sex offenses, and 498 were accused or convicted of murder.” The criminal records of those arrested include convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs and 1,479 weapon offenses.

Across the U.S., local agencies have become immigration enforcers under a federal program officials say strengthens public safety, but critics warn spreads fear, erodes trust and threatens the fabric of immigrant communities. Known as the 287(g) program, it was created under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and allows ICE to authorize state and local law enforcement officers to perform specific immigration enforcement duties under ICE’s supervision. The program is seen by some as a way to rev up President Trump’s effort on illegal immigration as the Department of Justice moves to prosecute state and local officials accused of impeding that effort.

The administration has invoked many policies that will reduce illegal immigration ranging from a proposal to restrict birthright citizenship to pausing refugee resettlement and performing greater scrutiny of green-card holders, international students, and intending immigrants. Another goal is to remove safety-net public benefits from large numbers of foreign-born and even U.S.-citizen relatives in mixed-status families.

While the results seem to be what most Americans were looking for when they supported Trump for reelection, many have doubts about the way some deportations have taken place and whether undocumented immigrants have been given due process when removal is imminent. Undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process under the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution protects all people, including those who are not citizens or legal residents, from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. This means they have a right to fair legal proceedings and a chance to defend themselves against government actions, such as deportation. 

A man who officials have acknowledged was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador "will never live" in the US again, the White House has said. Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García was deported to Central America from Maryland after he was accused of being a member of the banned MS-13 gang, which his lawyer has denied. A judge has ordered President Trump's administration to secure his return to the U.S. - but El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said earlier this week that he did not "have the power" to do so. This has been a thorn in Trump’s side as his administration acted abruptly to deport Abrego Garcia without first having a hearing or other forms of due process.

Universities

I could write a blog just on how the Trump Administration’s actions have affected universities in the U.S., including cutting off federal funds and grants to universities that allowed Palestinian protesters to take actions on campus that violated the rights of Jewish students to get to class and have the education they paid for. This is a complicated issue and one that I will address in a future blog on my site, Higher Education Ethics Watch.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the battle between the Trump administration and universities is that of Harvard University, the most famous institution of higher learning in the U.S. and with an endowment that exceeds $50 billion. Harvard relies on federal funding and its tax-exempt status like every other major research university. Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s demand for access to and review of Harvard’s employment, hiring and admissions data, as well as the discontinuation of all diversity programs. Trump said on social media that the university’s tax-exempt status should be rescinded.

Interestingly, the tax law Trump signed during his first term imposed a 1.4% excise tax on all universities with more than $500,000 per student in their endowments applied to 58 universities in 2022, according to the Tax Policy Center, and raised $244 million. The tax still exists today.

There is also the matter of teaching students about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), something I will also tackle in the “Higher Education” blog. Moreover, funds are being withheld from some organizations that have created DEI programs in the workplace and even in the military. It’s another complicated issue for sure.

A Teachable Moment

There are so many teachable moments from Trump’s first 100-days. I urge educators to design curricula to engage students in how the U.S. government should be run and whether Trump’s decisions have conformed to such expectations. Musk has said he would cut $1 trillion from the federal budget, down from the $2 billion claimed during the Presidential campaign. What he hasn’t said is it may take 10-years to achieve such savings. Nevertheless, kudos to President Trump for tackling the immigration issue other presidents did not, probably because they didn’t want to make waves. Moreover, some politicians may have been lax in the past to enforce immigration laws or legislate new ones with stricter controls because they foresee that undocumented immigrants would be future voters on the horizon.

Government Ethics is an oxymoron. Making decisions in the best interests of the American public seems to have given way to egoism in the form of the President and members of Congress serving their own political interests and those of their political party. We do need to make cuts in government, eliminate fraud and abuse. But it needs to be done the right way with input from all the stakeholders affected by any such actions.

Posted by Steven Mintz, aka Ethics Sage, on April 30, 2025. You can sign up for his newsletter and learn more about his activities at: https://www.stevenmintzethics.com/.