President Donald Trump has never been one for honeymoons. Just seven days into his first term, he signed the executive order barring entry for refugees and residents of seven Muslim-majority countries. Protests broke out at airports, public opinion soured and Democrats in Congress shifted to a more antagonistic footing.
Now, he’s ruining another honeymoon.
When Trump won and billionaire SpaceX owner Elon Musk moved into Mar-a-Lago for the presidential transition, some Democrats decided to extend a hand of bipartisanship. Progressive Rep. Ro Khanna said he was eager to work with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — or “DOGE” (har har, get it) — on its stated mission of improving efficiency. Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent Musk a list of recommendations.
It’s not unusual to hear members of the opposition say they’re willing to work with a new president.
It’s not unusual to hear members of the opposition — at least when they’re Democrats — say they’re willing to work with a new president. He just won, after all, and new presidents often get a little bump in public opinion, so the opposition may not want to look like it is being too obstructionist. And government efficiency is, or ought to be, a liberal goal. After all, liberals want a government that works.
Some progressives criticized Democrats for these moves. But it turned out that even the most skeptical progressives who torched Democrats online underestimated the sheer malevolence of both Trump and Musk. In just two weeks, the billionaire duo has frozen government payments, scapegoated minorities for an air crash, purged officials deemed insufficiently loyal, seized the government’s payment system and potentially shut down congressionally created agencies. Wherever you look, it’s worse than you could have imagined. There are times when one can engage constructively with one’s opponents and win real policy gains. Even if the other side just wants a veneer of bipartisanship, that can create an opening to negotiate for a better outcome. But that is not what we’re seeing now. Trump and Musk are in a hurry to destroy everything they can get their hands on. To paraphrase Kyle Reese describing the Terminator: They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. And they absolutely will not stop until they lay waste to our government as we have known it. Anyone who thought otherwise ought to understand by now. Subscribe to Trump’s First 100 Days newsletter for weekly updates on and expert insight into the key issues and figures defining his second term.
Paul Waldman is a journalist and author focused on politics and culture. 
