Tired of all the Breaking News? We are, too. The volume and velocity over the last year is not normal – nor is the systematic assault on international law, democratic institutions, and sovereignty. Trump's second term has brought constitutional violations, unauthorized military strikes, and threats against allies. For someone claiming “America First,” he's remarkably obsessed with Venezuela, Greenland, Canada, and Iran. This isn't the isolationist campaign he promised his supporters – it's imperial overreach inconsistent with putting Americans first.
The chaos is deliberate. Steve Bannon, Trump's former White House chief strategist, coined “flooding the zone” to describe the strategy: overwhelm the public so people can't process events or hold anyone accountable. Exhaust the opposition, normalize the abnormal. Our nervous systems weren't built for this relentless barrage.
This strategy obscures Trump's assault on sovereignty – the right of nations to self-determination. Denmark's intelligence service, for the first time in its history, listed the United States as a threat alongside Russia and China after Trump demanded Greenland, echoing Putin's 2014 seizure of Crimea. When a handful of Senate Republicans initially supported a Jan. 2026 War Powers Resolution limiting Trump's military actions in Venezuela, they later caved – with VP JD Vance breaking the tie against it. An anemic Republican majority enables his unchecked power.
Trump's policies are sadistic. He doesn't simply pursue harmful policies; he relishes the suffering they cause. At rallies celebrating mass deportations that separate families or restrictions on transgender health care, he appears to take pleasure in the pain of immigrants, people of color, Muslims, people with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ+ people.
His hypocrisy is striking. After promising Iranian protesters in early January, “the United States of America will come to their rescue,” he abandoned them and 2,000 activists have been reportedly killed since the protests began last month. In Dec. 2025, he authorized airstrikes on Iranian proxies that killed at least 28 civilians. Yet when Minneapolis burned after George Floyd's 2020 murder, he threatened military deployment, tweeting, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Now he threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act against protesters in Minnesota – a Democratic-led state – following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross's killing of Renee Good, a 37-year-old citizen. He praises dissent abroad while punishing it at home.
His Day One promises? Constitutional chaos. He claims to have “stopped 8 wars,” but Egypt-Ethiopia had no fighting to end, fresh fighting has resumed in Thailand-Cambodia and Congo, and Israel-Iran lasted only 12 days. The mainstream media don't dare challenge these delusions or risk losing White House access. Meanwhile, Trump launched unauthorized strikes on Venezuela, killing at least 115 people, including 32 Cubans, while kidnapping its president. He's blown up 36 boats in Caribbean waters – mostly poor fishermen and laborers. On the 2026 elections, Trump told Reuters, “We shouldn't even have an election.” We should believe him.
Over 2,000 federal ICE officers have flooded Minneapolis – part of ICE's doubled budget, creating a 22,000-officer force larger than most police departments. Many are pardoned Jan. 6 rioters who attacked Capitol Police. They operate with masks and without badges, body cameras, or accountability.
Gov. Jared Polis risks everything by considering clemency for Tina Peters. Trump hasn't negotiated – he's demanded her release while threatening “harsh measures” and telling Polis to “rot in Hell.” He's relocating the Space Command, moved to dismantle Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research, vetoed a clean water pipeline for 50,000 rural Coloradans, terminated $109 million in transportation grants, canceled $615 million in Energy funds, and denied disaster relief.
Peters was convicted on seven counts – four felonies – for tampering with voting machines. On Sunday, surveillance footage showed her grabbing another inmate's neck. Freeing her rewards bad behavior and election sabotage, and undermines Colorado's legal system.
The only sovereignty Trump respects is his own – and those who deal with him would be wise to remember that.
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that 15,000 Iranian protesters had been killed. The correct figure is 2,000, according to The Washington Post.
