www.newyorker.com /magazine/2025/03/10/trumps-disgrace

Trump’s Disgrace

David Remnick 4-4 minutes 3/1/2025

While F.D.R. set a modern standard for the revitalization of a society, Trump seems determined to prove how quickly he can spark its undoing.

Heads of President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky facing each other.

A wingless reconstruction of Tatlin’s flying machine, the Letatlin.

It was one thing to anticipate this prolonged political moment; it has been, these past weeks, quite another to live it. Each day is its own fresh hell, bringing ever more outrageous news from an autocrat who revels in his contempt for the government he leads, for the foreign allies who deserve our support, and for the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. Since beginning his second term, six weeks ago, Donald Trump has commandeered public attention to such an extent that it is hard to recall that there was ever a time when an American President went about his first weeks in office in a frenzy of activity characterized not by threat, chaos, and corruption but by discipline, competence, and compassion.

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David Remnick has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998 and a staff writer since 1992. He is the author of seven books; the most recent is “Holding the Note,” a collection of his profiles of musicians.

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