Donald Trump has leveraged the extensive executive powers vested in the US president to make a series of contentious announcements and unpredictable decisions. A few months into his presidency, Trump has already signed more than 150 executive orders, 61 alone on the first day.

Many of these were expected. Trump pardoned the Capitol Hill rioters and pulled America out of the Paris Agreement on climate. He banned transgender individuals from female sports and declared an emergency in border states, allowing him to deploy the Army against illegal entrants.

However, the bulk of his orders and decisions were more controversial and unpredictable, affecting the rights and lives of countless Americans.

Attack on the government

Trump launched a frontal attack on the federal government bureaucracy by establishing the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, with Elon Musk at its head. Building on the old Republican agenda of trimming government and reducing expenditures, DOGE went further than any of the previous Republican administrations. Thousands of federal government employees were fired and entire departments, including those administering taxes and social security benefits, were shut down. In doing so, Trump claimed to be attacking the ‘deep state’, which he said was working against him.

Elon Musk, who had been a big backer of Trump, appearing at his rallies and financing his campaign, became the hated figure pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Shady appointments

Trump doubled down by filling his cabinet with favourites or controversial figures who had no prior experience, whose only qualification seemed to be loyalty to the President. For instance, he put loyalists Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel at the head of the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and appointed the vaccine-doubting, conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as the Secretary of Health. It is certain that he will appoint highly conservative judges to the Supreme Court whose views will affect the lives of millions of ordinary Americans.

Muddled foreign policy

On foreign policy, Trump declared his intention to annexe Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. He ended the previous administration’s support for Ukraine by insisting that Ukraine agree to a ceasefire by ceding territory. He went on to antagonise neighbouring Canada, calling it another state of the US and its Prime Minister a governor.

Trump repeatedly claimed that countries were taking undue advantage of the US by imposing high duties on US products and threatened them with high tariffs. He made good his threats on ‘Liberation Day’, when the US imposed tariffs on many trading partners, which he then suspended after three days of market turmoil.

The lone bright spot in Trump’s foreign policy was his ability to get a ceasefire in Gaza, but this, too, was quickly undone by his grandiose visions of turning Gaza into prime real estate and by allowing Israel to resume bombing.

Free speech and academic freedom

Trump had earlier signed an executive order in favour of free speech, which he claimed was suppressed under former President Joe Biden. Yet it soon became clear what kind of speech he wanted to be free. Hundreds of foreign students accused of participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations were asked to leave the country. Universities were told to clamp down on student activism and shut courses on Middle East programmes. Trump threatened to withhold federal funding in case the universities did not comply.

The backlash

From federal government employees to social security beneficiaries and overseas students, Trump’s actions have put the lives of many in jeopardy. But his actions have not gone unchallenged. Judges have suspended or put on hold several of his contentious measures. On the ground, Americans have responded by taking to the streets in massive numbers in the first of the ‘hands-off’ rallies. But for the moment, it seems that Trump can get away with anything.

A lesson for the world

Trump’s re-election and his subsequent actions hold lessons for all democratic countries observing the events unfolding in the US from a distance. Leaders need to listen to the real issues affecting the people. For example, during Biden’s time, illegal immigration had become a major issue in the US, with thousands of immigrants put up in temporary housing and public spaces all over the country. In addition, many Americans shared the feeling that there were too many legal immigrants in the country, such as temporary workers on H-1 B visas and students, resulting in fewer opportunities for American citizens.

Republicans blamed democrats, and the Biden administration was seen as incapable of controlling immigration and being out of touch with ordinary Americans. Unsurprisingly, among the first decisions by Trump was the highly symbolic deportation of illegal immigrants via planes, including to India and Nepal. By this act, it is clear that Trump meant business.

Perhaps the most critical lesson from Trump’s actions would be to be wary of the enormous concentration of power in one person. While the US is a mature democracy and its presidents have been careful to use their executive authority, the logical outcome of such concentration of power in many less stable countries could be dictatorship or military rule.

The remedies are well known. There must be adequate controls on executive power through parliamentary oversight and judicial review. Executive orders such as those available to the US president should be limited to defence and other critical matters. Likewise, important issues, such as climate change and foreign policy, should not remain the sole discretion of the president and his advisors. Judges should be non-partisan and free from executive interference.

Ultimately, the rise of a populist like Trump is almost always the result of ordinary people losing trust in the political leadership and the inability of democratic institutions to deliver. It appears that people are willing to trade some of their democratic freedoms for something else, such as national pride or the promise of economic renewal. Yet, as experience tells us, this is often a grave mistake.