During the first six weeks of President Trump’s second term, I have had some difficulty prioritizing what I give my attention to. I am unsure if this is due to my own shortcomings, a seemingly contracted, almost schizophrenic-feeling media cycle, or just the sheer number of things happening. I hope, cautiously, it’s the last. For, to be fair, a lot is happening.
Be it a flurry of controversial cabinet appointments, the rush to settle the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, buying Greenland, tariff threats, an ever-expanding laundry list of executive orders, or looming mass deportations, it is very difficult to summon and retain enough information to know what is actually going on. If you manage that, it is even harder to say whether what’s happening is good or bad, and harder still to make accurate predictions about the future.
My suspicion is that others also struggle to process the constant deluge of facts and figures required to be well-informed in today’s America. I can’t help but accuse those who claim to know with any certainty whether these first six weeks have been good or bad of skipping out on their homework or, worse, outsourcing their thinking to whichever party they vote for. I try not to do this.
