A FRENZY OF ACTIVITY

DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR OF THE NEW YORKER, preaches to the choir. As one of its members, I preach more or less to the same audience here at SimanaitisSays, though I acknowledge perhaps a few exceptions. Suspecting that the latter would never purchase The New Yorker—out of ideology or indifference—I don’t mind offering tidbits here gleaned from “Trump’s Disgrace.” The New Yorker, March 1, 2025.

The First Few Weeks. David Remnick writes, “… it is hard to recall that there was ever a time when an American President went about his first weeks in office in a frenzy of activity characterized not by threat, chaos, and corruption but by discipline, competence, and compassion.”

David J. Remnick, New Jersey-born 1958, American journalist, writer, and editor; Pulitzer Prize winner, 1994. Image by Martin Schneider via Wikipedia. 

“Yet,” he recounts, “there was such a time. On the overcast morning of March 4, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt arrived at the U.S. Capitol to deliver his first Inaugural Address. The country was in a general state of misery. Since the start of the Depression, in late 1929, one out of three American workers had lost his job. Countless schools were shuttered. Banks were collapsing. Edmund Wilson, reporting for The New Republic, wrote that ‘there is not a garbage-dump in Chicago which is not diligently haunted by the hungry.’ ”

FDR’s Mandate. Remnick continues, “Roosevelt, having defeated Herbert Hoover in the popular vote by eighteen points, could honestly boast of a mandate and understood its meaning. As he said in his speech at the Capitol, the demands of the ‘stricken’ electorate were clear: ‘This nation asks for action, and action now.’ ”

FDR’s Inaugural, March 3, 1933. Also when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Image from history.com. 

FDR’s First Hundred Days. “Before the notion of a President’s ‘first hundred days’ was ever codified,” Remnick observes, “he set off on a tear of executive orders and legislative initiatives. Roosevelt, with the support of enormous Democratic majorities in Congress, quickly saved the national banking system, took the U.S. off the gold standard, paid out significant relief to the poor, and created federal agencies that not only provided work to the jobless but helped revive the country’s economy and infrastructure for decades to come.”

By Contrast, Trump’s Second 55 Days. Remnick writes, “It has not taken Trump a hundred days to match Roosevelt’s New Deal for its speed, its ‘muzzle velocity,’ as Steve Bannon, Trump’s formerly incarcerated court philosopher, has put it. But, while Roosevelt set a modern standard for the revitalization of a society, Trump seems determined to prove how quickly he can spark its undoing. In record time, he has brought shame and disorder to the country.”

And this, at a mere 55 days and counting. And counting.

 Trump’s (and an unelected Musk’s) Chaos. “Where F.D.R. set out to build and to comfort,” Remnick recounts, “Trump has set out to fire countless civil servants, punish his adversaries, and threaten the press. He has cast aside essential climate actions, humiliated undocumented immigrants and trans men and women, coddled dictators, and unnerved allies. F.D.R. appointed Cordell Hull, Harold Ickes, and other formidable advisers to his first Cabinet; Trump has empowered extremists distinguished principally by their conspiracy thinking, sycophancy, and incompetence.”

“F.D.R. created the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Tennessee Valley Authority;” Remnick continues, “Trump has deputized Elon Musk, who has billions of dollars in contracts with multiple federal agencies, to freeze federal funding for programs that millions of Americans depend on and to fire thousands of workers in vital government agencies. ‘We will make mistakes,’ Musk said in the White House, flashing a smile of privilege and malice. So far, these little goofs include, but are not limited to, momentarily laying off people who oversee the nuclear-weapons stockpile and cancelling Ebola-prevention measures.”

King Donald. (Where’s our Magna Carta when we need one?) Remnick observes, “Roosevelt, in his time, led the conquest of global fascism and the rescue of Europe. On matters of foreign policy, Trump has rapidly made common cause with autocrats from Budapest to Beijing and has made it clear to our European allies that when they come to Washington they had best flatter his ego and bear gifts, such as an invitation to visit King Charles. In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump nakedly sided with Russian aggression, berating the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, for failing to show him sufficient gratitude and respect and for ‘gambling with World War Three.’ ” 

Image from apnews. 

Trump and Vance: Small-Time Hoods. “Zelensky,” Remnick says, “is a hero of historic scale, brave beyond measure; Trump’s behavior was disgraceful. He and his Vice-President, J. D. Vance, deliberately tried to intimidate Zelensky with all the finesse of a couple of small-time hoods.”

Trump Supporters? Remnick writes, “Is this really what Trump’s supporters voted for?”

Thanks, David Remnick, for offering this perspective.  ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025