It has been one week since President Donald Trump was sworn in for the second time. The past seven days have been, at best, disorienting, as the new administration has jackknifed the county to the right so fast that the centrifugal force already feels crushing. In that time, Trump acted on his promise to unleash a wave of executive actions to begin transforming the federal government in his image.
After Trump's win over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, many of the people I know felt numb or checked out, unable to contemplate what was coming. I told anyone who would listen that that feeling would change once the theoretical became practical and all the hypotheticals under discussion emerged into our new daily realty. A great wave of Americans have now checked back in at once — and the net effect is straining our collective mental capacity.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest article. Read the full column here.