If you are like me, you are having difficulty keeping up with the scorecard of how Trump is showering savage pain on Americans and the world. We are witnessing the dismantling of democracy right before our eyes on a daily basis.

I’ve noted 22 Points in the Trump Scorecard below that itemize what he has done since January 20 when he became president again. Note: The Trump Scorecard is not complete—I would end up penning a thick, heavy book if I tried to cover everything that he has done.

As you read the scorecard, please consider:

History has shown that dictators and autocrats gain power by destroying the inner workings of a country; attacking and restricting legal systems, the news media and human rights; erasing the country’s history; and minimizing the voice of citizens through massive destructive changes to their society, education and politics.

And then the dictator or autocrat claims: “Only I can fix it…” This statement, by the way, was one of Trump’s favorite campaign slogans.

The Scorecard

of What Trump Has Done

Point 1—Get rid of federal employees: Layoffs and firings driven by the Trump-approved Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut the federal workforce by a total of 275,240 in March. Since Trump entered office in January, his administration has cut 279,445 federal jobs. The impacts on the employees’ families and the needs of Americans were never taken into account.

Point 2—Demolish federal agencies: With Trump’s approval, DOGE has decimated federal agencies. One example is the closure of the USAID Department, which provided critical health services around the world. In another example, the Department of Education has essentially been eliminated, with a mere few of the services transitioned to other federal agencies. The department’s vital student loan operation, a massive program, was transferred to the Department of Labor, which already was short-staffed and overworked.

Point 3—Slash Social Security operations: DOGE is having significant adverse impacts on senior citizens by making drastic changes in the Social Security Administration. Significant numbers of staff members have been fired or laid off, and offices have been closed. Phone service has been decreased, and now sometimes requires hours of being placed on hold before speaking to a live person. Phone service, it should be noted, has been a critical benefit to many senior citizens who do not have access to a computer. Starting April 14, new benefit applicants and changes to direct deposit information can no longer be done using the service’s over-the-phone identification process. Meanwhile, senior citizens who cannot verify their identity using the Social Security online “My Social Security” portal will be required to travel to a Social Security office to do the process in person. On April 9, a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that six million seniors will have no option other than making a roundtrip trip of 45 miles to 180 miles to the nearest Social Security office. It’s estimated that six million seniors do not drive and another eight million seniors have medical conditions or disabilities that make it difficult to travel away from home.

Point 4—Shut down research and education: DOGE has shut down scientific research grants, health services and humanities programs in our country, and eliminated program funding of public education, library services and services for special-needs students, among many other important programs that directly benefit Americans on a daily basis.

Point 5—Stop measles with witchcraft: At a time when a measles outbreak is underway in our nation, we have a Trump-appointed Secretary of Health & Human Services, Robert F. Kenndy, Jr., who is an avid anti-vaccine advocate and stupidly believes vitamin A is the cureall for measles. This is like a 17th century witch telling you to eat dried fox lungs to cure a cough. Now, in our current times, hospitals have reported that unfortunte patients are now coming in with toxicity problems caused by too much vitamin A consumption in a futile attempt to protect themselves from measles. Without a doubt, RFK, Jr.’s father would be ashamed of him. So would his uncle.

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Point 6—Medicaid on the way out: Medicaid is a target for dismantling. This will force disabled and in-need Americans to jump through hoops to access healthcare benefits. Don’t be surprised when Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (formerly called Obamacare)  show up on Trump’s list for dismantling.

Point 7—Musk’s federal funding not touched: DOGE is overseen by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who bought his way into his position by donating $260 million to Trump’s presidential campaign. Musk has received billions of federal dollars through contracts for his Space X company and his electric vehicle company, Tesla. None of the Musk contracts have been touched by DOGE. Meanwhile, he recently spent $25 million in an attempt to buy the election of a judge in Wisconsin. Thankfully—and here’s a point in our favor—Wisconsin voters said, “Hell, no, we won’t be bought,” and elected a proper judge who is loyal to the Constitution.

Point 8—Liberation Day, Tariff Day: On Wednesday, April 2, which Trump declared “Liberation Day,” Trump placed tariffs on 60 countries despite the dire warnings of every reputable economist in our country. A tariff war ensued. On April 9, after the U.S. and world stock markets plunged with losses of trillions of dollars, Trump placed the start of some of the Liberation Day tariffs on a 90-day delay—except for China. China immediately responded after Liberation Day by placing a reciprocal 34 percent tariff on American imports and banning a group of American businesses from operating in China. Then Trump responded to China’s response. Now, as of April 9, our tariff on goods from China is now 125 percent; on U.S. goods going into China, that country has placed an 84 percent tariff.

On April 9 Trump backed down on his Liberation Day tariffs by putting the start of the large tariff increases on hold for 90 days but establishing an across-the-board 10 percent tariff for the countries, except China, which still has the 125 percent tariff charged against it. Although he won’t admit this (he never admits he did something wrong), he likely backed down due to the severe, angry outcry over the adverse impacts of the tariffs on the stock market. Nonetheless, the threat of tariffs still hangs over the proverbial heads of the 60 countries. One lasting effect: Why should our allies ever trust America (that is, Trump) again?

Point 9—Tariff = Added Tax for Americans: Despite what Trump claims, tariffs are essentially an added tax placed on foreign-produced goods bought by Americans. Economists predict the tariffs will cost an average American household at least $3,800 a year. The prices of gasoline and food will go up, up, up, as huge amounts of our necessities are imported from Canada, Mexico, China, and other countries. In the meantime, the export of American goods—particularly agricultural products like soybeans, a major American export to China—will decline, decline, decline. The American farming industry will suffer, and, as he did in his first administration during the woes of Covid, Trump will most likely claim he is the savior and use federal money to subsidize farmers. Federal money, of course, comes from American taxpayers. So not only will we pay more at the store and gas stations because of Trump’s tariffs, our money will be used to help farmers who suffer because other countries won’t buy their products because Trump levied tariffs against those countries.

Point 10–$6 trillion lost: As a result of the tariff debacle, the U.S. stock market lost more than $6 trillion combined on April 3 and April 4. Retirement accounts tanked. In addition to what happened in the U.S. stock market, global stock markets plunged terribly fast, too. Compare all of this back to late 2024 when the U.S. stock market repeatedly set record highs.

Point 11–Recession on the way: Highly respected economic experts, leading banks and knowledgeable investors are predicting a recession is in our immediate future due to all the damage that Trump has done. On April 7, some experts said they believed the U.S. was already in a recession. Analysts predict a recession could result in as many as 1.5 million jobs lost in the U.S.

Point 12—No additional tariffs for Trump’s buddy: Trump has gone out of his way to cozy up to Putin and other autocrats and dictators around the world. He placed no new tariffs on Russia, as opposed to the major tariffs he announced for our allies on his so-called “Liberation Day.”

Point 13—Give us your minerals, or else!: In an attempt to force Ukraine to sign over rights to its valuable mineral resources to the U.S., Trump has used the threat of withdrawing American support for Ukraine as a bargaining chip. This has caused European countries to declare the U.S. is no longer a reliable ally.

Point 14—Illegal delivery to Torture Prison: In secret, Trump had 300 immigrants who are allegedly members of a gang arrested, and then he bragged that the men were deported to what is known as the world’s worst prison in El Salvador, a place that is commonly known as the “Torture Prison” because of its terrible treatment of prisoners. The U.S. will pay El Salvador $6 million a year to keep them imprisoned. All of this was done by breaking the law that firmly states each person in America, regardless of their citizenship, has the right to due process in court.

Point 15—Legal to ship off Americans: As it has turned out, one of the men, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is not a gang member and was legally in the U.S., was deported by mistake to the Torture Prison, the Trump administration admitted in a recent court hearing. But the Trump administration claimed it cannot bring him back to the U.S. because he was now in the hands of a foreign country.

If this is now the rule of law in our country, we as a nation have reached the point where the Trump administration can get rid of people due to their skin color, religion or viewpoints by scooping them up and whisking them off to a prison outside of U.S. jurisdiction and then claiming there is no way to get them back—the danger of this scenario, by the way, has been recognized by distinguished federal judges. The judge in the Garcia case,  U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, ruled more than a week ago that the Trump administration’s actions were “a clear constitutional violation” and Trump’s legal officials are clinging “to the stunning proposition that they can remove any persons—migrant and U.S. citizen alike—to prisons outside the United States” and then claim they have no way to retrieve the person because the U.S. is no longer the “custodian” of the person. The Trump administration won an appeal April 7 by receiving a Supreme Count “pause” in the Garcia case in the Supreme Court and also winning an appeal in front of the Supreme Court on another case where District Judge James Boesberg tried to stop the administration from shuffling the 300 accused gang members off to El Salvador under the administration’s use of the 18th century Alien Enemies Act, a law so old that Thomas Jefferson personally was appalled by it. In her statement dissenting in the Supreme Count 5-to-4 ruling in favor of allowing Trump to deport the gang members, Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated, “The implication of the Government’s position is that not only noncitizens but also United States citizens could be taken off the streets, forced onto planes, and confined to foreign prisons with no opportunity for redress if judicial review is denied unlawfully before removal.”

Point 16—No due process: Other foreigners in the U.S. on a legal status are now being arrested, incarcerated and aimed at deportation even if they are legally in our country. So far, all of this is being done without the due process of the law.

Point 17–Trump’s revenge: Trump is taking revenge on law firms involved in justified prosecutions against him and on media outlets that report the truth of what he is doing. He is also taking revenge on American citizens whom he considers his political enemies. On April 9, he signed an executive order condemning Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs and ordering the Justice Department to investigate them. Taylor is a commentator and author who worked in the federal government during the George W. Bush and first Trump administrations. On live national television, Trump labeled Taylor as a “traitor” and said he’s “guilty of treason” due to writing the book Anonymous. Published in 2023, the book revealed that Homeland Security officials during Trump’s first administration were so concerned about tension with North Korea that “multiple meetings [were held] to prepare for a nuclear attack on American soil.” Meanwhile, Krebs was director of the federal government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. When Trump was attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he fired Krebs because he (Krebs) declared the general election was the most secure in U.S. history.

Point 18—Rewrite U.S. history: As evidenced by Trump’s destruction of DEI, America is on its way to becoming a nation where only white men are the ones in charge—in other words, back to the days before equal rights. DEI, by the way, stands for “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.” It’s a framework for promoting fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially groups who have historically been subjected to discrimination due to skin color, sexual identity or disability. Due to Trump’s hatred of DEI, our nation’s history is right now being rewritten. The National Park Service, Smithsonian and other institutions are revising their websites and displays to eliminate or significantly downplay slavery and other shameful eras of our history.

Point 19—Kill freedom of speech Trump’s anti-DEI initiative is aimed at destroying the freedom of speech rights of states, communities, and American universities by withholding federal funding to those entities that do not bend the proverbial knee to him. Trump has stopped or threatened to stop billions of dollars of research funding to prestigious universities because they allowed students to exercise their freedom of speech rights to protest last fall over the Israeli invasion of Palestine.

Point 20—Goodbye to elections: The Trump administration has made strong efforts to change election laws to give Trump and his allies power over elections. They also are trying to disgrace judges and smear and dismantle our legal system. There are also efforts in Congress to terminate district courts. Currently, 140 lawsuits have been filed to stop the actions of Trump, Musk and DOGE. Trump and his cronies erroneously claim such lawsuits are illegal, and that the courts have no authority over what the president wants to do.

Point 21—Congress worthless: The Republicans who control the House and Senate have, for all practical purposes, turned over their power to the Trump administration. In short, Congress is now a worthless non-entity.

Point 22—Our national security in danger: It’s strikingly obvious that Trump-appointed leaders of our national security have no idea how to keep our country safe. Just look at the fiasco of Signal-gate, the recent phone conversation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other leading Trump officials about bombing Houthis in Yemen, all of this Top Secret conversation taking place while the editor of the highly respected Atlantic magazine was accidentally put on the phone call. Hegseth and his buddies would be fired in any sane administration, but the Trump administration shrugged it off as no big deal.

And here’s a Bonus Point for Trump:

Point 23—Listening to crazy advice: Trump recently took the crazy advice of Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist visiting him in the Oval Office, and he fired highly respected, well-experienced National Security experts because she claimed they were not loyal to him.

And yet one more Bonus Point that can’t be overlooked:

Point 24—Restrictions on our use of toilet paper? On April 9, Trump signed an executive order to remove limitations on water pressure from shower heads and household appliances. Next, perhaps we see an executive order dictating how much toilet paper an American can use on a daily basis. This is not too farfetched as Trump tries to control the lives of Americans on his way to dictatorship.