Oops.

"It’s one thing to understand the gravity of his intentions, but I think it’s equally important to recognize that he’s really bad at everything he tries to do."

Apr 26, 2025

On Wednesday evening, Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) presented an illuminating recap of Donald Trump’s last three months, as the traditional 100-day benchmark of a new administration draws closer. Day #100 (6.8% of his term) will arrive next Tuesday, April 29, leaving the world to endure an additional 1,361 days until his current term expires. The transcript below begins at the 3:00 mark:

We really are, without a doubt, going through a kind of attempted authoritarian takeover of our country, and that has included destroying as much of the government as possible and using the government in every way they can to try to hurt people in the country who the president wants targeted. They’re having government-attempted takeovers of huge swaths of civil society, including the legal profession and education, and even museums. They are banning books. They are policing what words people are allowed to use in bizarre and authoritarian ways. They are using terror tactics and secret police tactics against people they are targeting, including secret detention and sending people to foreign gulags. They are reversing our alliances with the countries of the free world and aligning us with the dictatorships instead. They have freakin redecorated the White House with cheesy-looking gold geegaws, so it looks like a cheap budget hotel version of the Kremlin. . . . The authoritarian project is definitely here. It is what we are up against. Everybody who warned against that before the election was correct. No question. . . .
If there is something to learn about what Trump in power is going to be like, I think the first 100 days have given us one very clear lesson. We know he’s trying for the whole dictator thing — no elections, no courts, no resistance, rule by terror. We know that. We know the people of this country aren’t having it. But I think what we should also know, what we have just lived through in this first 90+ days thus far, is him screwing up. It’s him absolutely blowing it. It’s one thing to understand the gravity of his intentions, but I think it’s equally important to recognize that he’s really bad at everything he tries to do. I don’t know if he’s bad at good stuff he tries to do, because he’s not trying to do much that seems good, but the bad stuff he’s trying to do, he’s been real bad at that. It hasn’t been funny, exactly. It’s too disgusting for that. But it has been the proverbial comedy of errors.
Let me show you what I mean. Do you remember the first big surprise “destroy-the-government” thing that he did [January 27], right after the Inauguration? He sent out a White House memo ordering the freezing of all federal funding, all federal grants, and then less than 48 hours [January 29] — oops — had to take that back. “Trump White House Rescinds Memo Freezing Federal Grants After Widespread Confusion And Legal Challenges”.
“President Donald Trump’s budget office on Wednesday rescinded a memo freezing spending on federal grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country. The Monday evening memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget sparked uncertainty . . . and left the White House scrambling to explain what would and wouldn’t be subject to a pause in funding.”
It was the first big thing he did — and then they immediately had to take that back. Did we say freeze federal funding? We didn’t — we’re just going to — that’s rescinded. We’ll try that again. Right out of the gate.
And then right on the heels of that, do you remember this one, when they accidentally put somebody in charge of the FBI who they didn’t mean to? [January 29] “White House officials goofed on the White House website” — you don’t see the word “goofed” in the Wall Street Journal all that often — “White House officials goofed on the White House website and listed the wrong man in charge of the [FBI], people familiar with the matter said. Instead of correcting the error, officials let it stand, and the two men traded temporary titles. . .”
So they, oops, accidentally put the wrong person as the acting head of the FBI, mixed up the names. We didn’t mean to put you in there. Oh, well, who cares? We’ll just let the other guy we didn’t mean to put in charge of the FBI be in charge of the FBI. What could possibly go wrong?
Immediately after that, oops [February 5]. Turns out they accidentally put the names of hundreds of CIA officers in an unclassified email and sent it to the White House, where things like that just kind of happen now.
That same day, we learned that Trump has accidentally made it impossible for the postal service to accept mail from China. [February 5] Oops. Trump made an announcement about shipping things from China. He had no idea, apparently, what the implications of that announcement would be. Then the Post Office announced, Uhh, based on what you said, Sir, this means America can no longer receive mail from China. And well, I’m not exactly sure what he did mean, but that wasn’t what he meant. So, oops, that had to be reversed, too.
By then, the president’s top campaign donor was working his bizarre magic in Washington, so we got the accidental firing of the National Nuclear Security Agency, which handles the safe transportation, storage, assembly, and dismantling of our nation’s nuclear weapons. [February 17] Oops, oops. We didn’t mean to do that. Oops. “Trump Administration Fires And Then Tries To Rehire Nuclear Weapons Workers In DOGE Reversal”.
Then this was the very next day [February 18]. Headline, New York Times: “Doge Claimed It Saved $8 Billion In One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million”. So that’s cool. They were off by roughly 100,000%. But, you know, don’t forget, these are the smart guys, the smart kids.
Next day [February 19]: “Agriculture Department Tries To Rehire Fired Workers Tied To Bird Flu Response”. Oops. We accidentally fired all the bird flu people in the middle of the bird flu. Oops. Can we get them back? No? No, we can’t?
That same day [February 19]: “Trump Administration Reverses Plan To End Free COVID Test Program” [and plan to destroy “tens of millions of unused tests worth more than a half-billion dollars”]. The taxpayers bought all these COVID tests, perfectly good COVID tests. There’s still COVID. People are still testing for COVID to see if they have COVID. But because the Trump administration doesn’t like COVID, they’re going to, what? Incinerate millions of tests, of perfectly good tests? So Americans instead have to buy more of them by paying for themselves instead of getting the free ones the government already bought to hand out? Seriously? No, not seriously. Reverse that one, too.
This was also that same day [February 19]. This is a big day in Oopsville [a later headline from February 21]: “Trump Administration Reverses Its Previous Decision And Reinstates Legal Aid For Migrant Children”. Yeah, it turns out babies don’t make great lawyers. Doesn’t work out great to have literally babies and toddlers appearing in court alone with a judge asking them questions. I said, All rise, baby. Are you able to stand on your own? Oh, actually, sorry. Yeah, they reversed that, too. They have since tried again to take away the lawyers for babies and little kids in court after this initial reversal, so this one actually remains a live issue. I don’t know if that’s better.
Two days later [February 21], oops. We accidentally cut the program that helps the 9/11 first responders. Did we mean to do that? I think we did mean to do that, but we certainly can’t defend it now that people are asking us to defend it, so that one gets reversed, too.
Then Trump’s top campaign donor, Elon Musk, tries on the federal government the same thing he did to destroy the company Twitter [February 23]. He sends out the ‘what-did-you-do-last-week’ email, insisting that anybody who doesn’t immediately respond to that email will instantly be fired from the federal government. No exceptions. Really? Seriously? No, not really, and definitely not seriously [February 25]: “Federal Agencies Can Ignore ‘What Did You Do Last Week?’ Email, Trump Administration Says”.
Then this is the following day [February 26]. We get news from the VA where Trump has cut things like, oh, I don’t know, little liberal woke programs like cancer treatment and support for veterans with cancer, and burial services for veterans. Trump cut burial services for veterans. Really? Yeah, for a hot minute, until people freaked out, and so yeah, he reversed that, too. I mean, are you kidding me? He was not kidding.
Next [February 26]: “VA Contract Cancellations Halted In Major Reversal”.
Maybe at this point, they’re getting a little shy about screwing up so much, about having to take back and try to undo all these things that they’re messing up?
No, they’re just getting warmed up.
The very next day [February 27], after taking back the veterans burials that Trump cut, we get this headline: “Elon Musk Admits DOGE Accidentally Eliminated Prevention Measures Combating Ebola Virus”. Oops.
The next day [February 28]: Trump administration “Reverses Course After Putting Veterans Crisis Line Hires On Hold”.
“Due to an administrative error, job offers for some Veterans Crisis Line positions that were scheduled to be filled later this month were mistakenly rescinded. This issue has been addressed and VA is in the process of reissuing these offers”.
‘Due to an administrative error’? What kind of administrative error has you accidentally cutting the suicide hotline?

That same week [March 3]: “Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List Of Savings”.
“Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued ‘wall of receipts’ . . . Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week.”
Then this was the next day [March 4]: “Trump Abruptly Walks Back His Directive To Fire Thousands Of Federal Employees”. “In revised guidance issued to the heads of federal agencies, the Office of Personnel Management . . . tries to rewrite history by claiming it never actually ordered agencies to fire probationary employees”. Let’s pretend we didn’t do that one.
And this was the next day [March 5] — oh, this was a great one. At 2 p.m. Tuesday, the Trump administration “posted a list of 443 properties for sale — and inventory that ranged from an El Paso toll booth to the FDA’s research campus in Silver Spring, Maryland. In the next five hours, more than 100 properties were removed from the catalog”, including the Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services, the headquarters of the Department of Justice, the headquarters of the Department of Labor, and the headquarters of Veterans Affairs. “By Wednesday morning, the entire list had been removed”.
So, yes, Trump did announce that he was selling hundreds of federal buildings, including the headquarters of the Justice Department, but did he mean that? We’re not even sure if we know. Oops. They just put them all up for sale and then took them all down and didn’t answer any questions about what had happened there. Pretend that didn’t happen.
Then this was the very next day [March 6]: “In Dizzying Reversal, Trump Pauses Tariffs On Some Mexican And Canadian Products”.
A few days later [March 12]: Trump administration “scraps far-reaching cuts” to social security phone services after Washington Post report.
Oh, this was genius [March 20]: “The Social Security” — oh, this is amazing — “The Social Security numbers and other private information of more than 400 former congressional staffers and others [including President Trump’s own lawyer] were made public Tuesday in the unredacted files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy” that President Trump ordered released.
“After the Post reported the inadvertent disclosure on Wednesday, the White House rushed to mitigate the impact”. The National Archives then started screening the documents for Social Security numbers after they had already been publicly released. “The National Archives started screening the documents for Social Security numbers [after the fact] so that the Social Security Administration could identify living individuals and issue them new numbers. . .”
Oops. Oops. We accidentally very thoroughly doxed hundreds of people, including the president’s own lawyer, publishing their names, their place of birth, their full birth dates, and their full unredacted Social Security numbers. Hundreds of them. Oops.
Then the following week, we get — oh, this is a real oops [March 24]. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine: “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”.
Then this one [April 1]: “Trump Administration Admits Maryland Man Sent To El Salvador Prison By Mistake”.
Two days later [April 3]: “Trump’s Tariffs Hit Even Remote Islands. One Is Mainly Home To Penguins.”
The next day [April 4]: “‘We’ll Make Mistakes’ Says RFK As Fired Us Health Staff Asked To Return”.
Three days later [April 7]: “Economists Reveal Major Math Blunder In Donald Trump’s Tariff Formula That Inflates Impact By 400%, Could Spark Global Trade Chaos”.
The next day [April 8]: “National Park Service Restores Underground Railroad Web Page After Outcry”. Oops, oops. Had we messed that up? Will you guys please pretend that that was a mistake and not something we totally did on purpose, but then we couldn’t defend it once we did it, and so we just quietly undid it while hoping you wouldn’t notice? Can we leave it like that?
Same day [April 8]: “DOGE Cuts At A Florida Manatee Refuge Have Been Reversed — For Now.”
Same day [April 8]: “Trump Administration Says It Cut Funding To Some Life-Saving UN Food Programs By Mistake”. Oops.
The next day [April 9]: “Trump Announces Sudden Reversal On Tariffs, Lowering Most To 10% But Hiking China’s to 125%”.
This past Friday night [April 18], New York Times: “Trump Officials Blame Mistake For Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard”.
The April 11 letter from the White House [to Harvard] . . . should not have been sent and was “unauthorized”.
And it hasn’t even slowed down.
Just this week: “Trump Administration Restores Funding For Critical Weather Data Centers” [April 21]. “Elon Musk’s Handpicked IRS Chief Lasts Just 72 Hours” [April 19].
The story of this first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency is sometimes a very scary movie, because of what he really does seem to be trying to do, and what he has already done to some people and some parts of our government and some elements of our country. . . . It is sometimes also an action movie, with people all over the country springing into action and standing up to stop him from doing those things, as best they can.
But the one thing it has consistently also been from the moment he got back to Washington is an unfunny farce, a slapstick mess of reversals and mistakes and oops, let’s pretend we didn’t do that, and let’s try to undo it, and let’s hope no one notices just how dumb it was when we really did do it, and we can’t even really defend it, so . . . oops.
The one word that most sums up Donald Trump’s term in office thus far, heading to 100 days, the one word that best sums it up is: Oops. Just because they’re trying to do really, really bad things doesn’t change the fact that they’re also really bad at everything they try to do. Which for this country is definitely a curse, but also in some ways, a blessing.
We’re heading towards 100 days. There’s going to be a lot of lookbacks at what Trump has done. Whatever you hear, what anybody says, don’t let anybody tell you, this time around, that they are competent.

Writer. Reader. Grouch.

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