Bad Donnie?
Opinion by Ben Everidge for Thomas
Photo Credit: Getty Images
When Power Stops Looking Like Good Government …
There is a serious question hanging over American public life as the country moves deeper into the second year of Donald Trump’s second term – one that deserves to be asked plainly, which troubles many political independents, without theatrics or tribal reflexes: Is what Trump is doing now bad government and bad for America?
Before you go and get all worked up, let’s keep some perspective here, worth remembering if you believe in American democracy. This is not a question about ideology. It is not even a question about policy outcomes. It is a legitimate question about governance norms, constitutional restraint, and whether power is being exercised in the service of the republic or of personal grievance.
Criminalizing Independence: The Fed Chair Precedent
The idea of criminally investigating Jerome Powell, the sitting Chair of the Federal Reserve, crosses a line previous presidents – Republican and Democrat alike – have respected for generations.
The Federal Reserve’s independence exists precisely t prevent political pressure from distorting monetary policy. Once central bankers are threatened with prosecution for decisions a president dislikes, markets do not just react – they lose faith. This is how strong currencies weaken and how confidence erodes without a single law being changed.
Good government tolerates disagreement. Bad government seeks punishment.
Allies as Props: NATO and Greenland
Threatening to seize Greenland by force or casually diminishing NATO relationships may play well in grievance politics, but it actively weakens American strategic credibility.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not a favor America does for Europe; it is the backbone of U.S. global influence. When alliances are treated as punchlines or bargaining chips, adversaries do not laugh. They take notes.
Power that mocks its own architecture eventually collapses under its own weight.
Elections Without Evidence
Calls to confiscate election day ballot machines and boxes – absent proof of systemic fraud – strike at the heart of democratic legitimacy. After years of claims about the 2020 election that failed in court many times over, repeating the same threats does not look like vigilance.
It looks like preparation to reject outcomes before they occur criminally.
Good government protects electoral confidence. Bad government preemptively undermines it.
Prosecutors Quartered in the White House?
The suggestion that special prosecutors should be housed inside the White House to look into special grievances is a constitutional alarm bell. The Department of Justice is intentionally separate from presidential control to prevent precisely this kind of politicization.
Blurring that line is how republics drift into executive dominance without ever declaring it.
Permanent Threat Mode: Iran, Mexico, Canada
Threatening military action against rising civil war in Iran, saber-rattling toward Mexico, and floating annexation talk about Canada may be written off as Trumpian bravado – but taken together, they reveal something more sinister: a presidency increasingly comfortable governing through menace rather than diplomacy.
Even when threats like these are not carried out – if they are not carried out – they corrode trust and exhaust institutions at home and abroad.
So, Is It “Bad Donnie”?
If “Bad Donnie” means a president who:
Seeks to punish independent institutions without actual cause
Treats lawful dissent as disloyalty
Undermines trusted alliances that took generations to build
Questions elections without proof
Governs through chaos rather than competence
Then the question answers itself.
This is not about being pro- or anti-Trump. It is about whether America is being governed or managed through disruption.
Good government is boring, restrained, predictable, and lawful.
Chaos politics is emotional, personal, and corrosive.
History is rarely kind to leaders who confuse the two.
Thomas exists to ask uncomfortable questions in defense of the republic. In 2026, “Bad Donnie?” may be one of the most important questions we can ask before the answer is written for us.
