There Is a Contest Trump Is Winning

Mr. Edsall contributes weekly essays from Washington on politics and demographics.

The damage President Trump has inflicted on the United States and the world is so enormous and wide-ranging that it is hard to grasp.

It runs the gamut from public and private institutions to core democratic customs and traditions, from the legal system to universities, from innocent targets of fraud to those duped into believing vaccines do more harm than good.

One way to bring home the depth of Trump’s callousness is to look at a specific case. In May 2025,........

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