Dans un article intitulé “Trump Promised Radical Change in His Second Term. Here’s What He’s Done So Far”, le New York Times adopte un ton extrêmement modéré en confondant modération et crédibilité. Les commentaires des lecteurs sont d’ailleurs extrêmement critiques. “Here we go again: normalizing an outlaw president. We will rue the day that kleptocrats. misogynists, antisemites and racists were actively sought out for the Republican political party affiliation and government positions, regardless of “the pendulum”, explique l’un d’entre d’eux assez représentatif de la tonalité générale.
Ci-dessous une réécriture de l’article au vu des commentaires et avec le ton du magazine The New Republic qui reprend les thèmes Immigration, Federal Work Force, Trade, Affordability, Combating Illegal Drugs, Wars, Troops on Domestic Soil, Weaponization of the Justice Dept., D.E.I. Purge, Presidential Power.
Donald Trump returned to office promising a decisive break with what he portrayed as a corrupt, feckless political order. One year into his second term, there is no doubt that he has delivered change. The question is not whether the United States has been transformed, but what kind of transformation is underway.
What has emerged is not a pragmatic course correction or a populist reform agenda, but a systematic consolidation of executive power, the erosion of democratic guardrails, and the normalization of state violence at home and abroad. Where supporters see action, critics see a presidency that governs by spectacle, coercion, and permanent exception.
This is what Trump said he would do. And this is what he has actually done.
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Immigration
What He Said
Trump made immigration the centerpiece of his reelection campaign, vowing to “shut down the border,” restore “law and order,” and immediately reverse what he described as the chaos of the Biden years.
What He Did
Trump did not merely restrict undocumented migration; he reengineered the immigration system into an instrument of deterrence and exclusion. Illegal border crossings have fallen to levels not seen in decades, but the decline was achieved by effectively dismantling the right to seek asylum, a cornerstone of U.S. and international law.
By executive order, the administration blocked asylum access for nearly all unauthorized entrants, pressured Mexico to halt migrant flows before they reached U.S. soil, and dramatically expanded detention mandates. Deportations surged, yet the promised focus on “the worst of the worst” proved largely fictional. Government data show that most individuals swept up in high-profile raids had no criminal records.
Legal immigration was also targeted. Refugee admissions were slashed to the lowest level since the program’s creation, with limited carveouts favoring white South African Afrikaners. Migrants were deported to countries they had never lived in, not as policy necessity but as psychological warfare—meant to frighten others into leaving “voluntarily.”
The result is not border security, but a racialized immigration regime built on fear, spectacle, and deliberate cruelty.
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Federal Work Force
What He Said
Trump promised to “demolish the deep state” and end what he claimed was bureaucratic sabotage of elected leadership
What He Did
In practice, Trump launched a political purge of the federal government, hollowing out professional expertise while rewarding personal loyalty. Senior officials at the Justice Department and FBI were dismissed en masse for their perceived disloyalty, particularly anyone connected to investigations involving Trump himself.
Civil service protections designed to prevent the federal government from becoming a spoils system were weakened or bypassed. With the backing of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” entire agencies were dismantled or frozen without congressional approval, including parts of USAID and the Department of Education.
Roughly 317,000 federal workers left government service in a single year, while far fewer were hired. Public capacity eroded—disease prevention, disaster response, scientific research—while enforcement and surveillance functions expanded. Trump framed unelected bureaucrats as the enemy, even as he purged inspectors general whose job was to detect fraud and abuse.
This was not reform. It was institutional vandalism.
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Trade
What He Said
Trump pledged to use tariffs to punish countries “ripping off” the United States and to revive domestic manufacturing.
What He Did
Trump reignited a global trade war with little strategic coherence and enormous collateral damage. Tariffs of up to 25 percent on Canada and Mexico, 20 percent on China, and sweeping levies on dozens of other countries pushed the effective U.S. tariff rate above 18 percent, the highest since 1934.
Retaliation followed. China curtailed mineral exports and slashed purchases of U.S. agricultural goods. Manufacturing employment continued to decline, with more than 50,000 factory jobs lost during Trump’s first year back in office. Businesses stockpiled imports to delay price hikes, but consumers are now feeling the effects as inventories shrink.
Trump promised an industrial renaissance. What he delivered was economic volatility, higher consumer costs, and rising bankruptcies, particularly among small and import-dependent firms.
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Affordability
What He Said
Trump claimed he would “rapidly drive prices down” and restore affordability.
What He Did
Inflation remains elevated, grocery prices are still painfully high, and housing affordability has worsened. The administration points to modest declines in gas prices, but economists caution that global markets—not presidential policy—are the primary driver.
Tariffs have raised costs on everyday goods, while Trump has pressured the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates despite inflationary risks. Mortgage rates remain high, and the administration’s proposal for 50-year mortgages was widely criticized as unserious.
Ad hoc proposals for direct checks lack detail and coherence. For millions of Americans, Trump’s affordability agenda has amounted to rhetoric without relief.
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Combating Illegal Drugs
What He Said
Trump vowed to crush drug cartels, repeatedly invoking military force as a solution.
What He Did
Trump redefined drug trafficking as an act of war. His administration designated cartels as terrorist organizations and secretly authorized U.S. military strikes on suspected smuggling boats, killing more than 100 people in international waters.
Legal experts overwhelmingly rejected the administration’s claim that trafficking drugs constitutes an “armed attack.” The policy blurred the line between law enforcement and warfare—and did so selectively. While fentanyl, the main driver of overdose deaths, flows primarily through land routes and chemical supply chains, U.S. forces targeted cocaine shipments instead.
The approach set a dangerous precedent: extrajudicial killing justified by presidential decree.
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Wars
What He Said
Trump promised to keep America out of wars and to end existing conflicts swiftly.
What He Did
Trump has claimed credit for a cease-fire in Gaza, but the agreement functioned largely as a diplomatic mirage. According to figures cited by U.N. agencies and humanitarian organizations, more than 500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the weeks following the cease-fire announcement, with hundreds of documented violations including airstrikes and ground operations. Aid remained restricted, displacement continued, and violence merely slipped from headlines rather than stopping.
At the same time, Trump quietly expanded U.S. military operations elsewhere. In Nigeria, his administration authorized direct U.S. airstrikes in 2025, escalating American involvement in West Africa without explicit congressional authorization. Independent monitors warned of opaque targeting and heightened civilian risk.
Trump failed to end the war in Ukraine, exaggerated his mediation record elsewhere, and approved strikes on Iran-linked targets. The pattern is clear: wars do not end; they are rebranded.
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Troops on Domestic Soil
What He Said
Trump openly pledged to use the military to fight crime, protests, and migration inside the United States
What He Did
Trump deployed federal troops to U.S. cities, federalized the National Guard over governors’ objections, and used legal contortions to grant soldiers law enforcement powers. In Los Angeles alone, thousands of Guard members and Marines were sent into city streets during protests.
Courts later ruled some deployments unlawful, but the precedent was set. Trump normalized the presence of soldiers in civilian life—a step long associated with authoritarian regimes, not liberal democracies.
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Weaponization of the Justice Department
What He Said
Trump promised to “expose” the politicization of justice.
What He Did
He weaponized it openly. Trump ordered investigations of political opponents, installed loyalists with little prosecutorial experience, and pushed for indictments after prosecutors declined to bring cases.
Judges dismissed some charges due to improper appointments, but the damage was done. The Justice Department increasingly functions as the president’s legal strike force, not an independent institution.
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D.E.I. Purge
What He Said
Trump vowed to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
What He Did
The administration launched a state-driven culture war, stripping references to racism from curricula, targeting universities, purging research grants containing words like “equity,” and pressuring federal employees to report colleagues.
Confederate statues were restored, museums accused of being too honest about slavery, and transgender protections dismantled. This was not neutrality—it was ideological enforcement by the state.
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Presidential Power
What He Said
Trump framed himself as a strong but lawful executive.
What He Did
He governed through emergency powers, executive orders, and congressional bypasses at a scale unmatched in modern history—despite the absence of a national emergency. Courts, Congress, and internal watchdogs were sidelined.
The result is not a pendulum swing, but a structural shift toward illiberal executive rule.
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Conclusion
Trump promised radical change. He delivered it—not as reform, but as authoritarian acceleration. Institutions weakened, violence normalized, law politicized, and power centralized.
The danger is not merely what Trump has done, but what he has made normal. In this presidency, democracy does not collapse in one dramatic moment. It erodes, quietly, under the applause of spectacle and the silence of fatigue.
And that may be the most lasting change of all.