One Hundred Days of Hubris: A Pocket Guide To Constitutional Unraveling

"Habsburg hallucination meets Atlantic City fever dream."

History Cranks and Fiends,

I'm making the media rounds today—which I pregamed with with Richard Gallant—but instead of sending you a postmortem, I'm giving you my notes for that blitz. Here's what I'm working with—an accounting of constitutional collapse, measured in days rather than decades.

But first, a quick question!

x Alexis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

THE OVAL OFFICE AS VERSAILLES (Days 1-10)

QUALITY V. QUANTITY (Days 11-30)

THE MUSK MACHINE: PLUTOCRACY AS GOVERNANCE (Days 31-50)

THE TARIFF TANTRUM: ECONOMIC SELF-IMMOLATION (Days 51-70)

THE REVENGE APPARATUS: GOVERNMENT AS VENDETTA MACHINE (Days 71-90)

THE JUDICIAL CONFRONTATION: COURTS UNDER SIEGE (Days 91-100)

THE OVAL OFFICE AS VERSAILLES (Days 1-10)

Donald Trump has transformed the Oval Office into what historians call a "Habsburg hallucination meets Atlantic City fever dream." Gold cherubim stud the walls. Rococo mirrors multiply the gaudiness. Andrew Jackson's portrait glowers from a gold frame. Ronald Reagan's stern visage keeps him company. Both represent unilateral executive action and anti-governmental fervor.

This isn't mere decoration—it's constitutional semaphore—though North American leaders who embrace monarchical aesthetics have rarely prospered. Emperor Maximilian once erected golden eagles at Chapultepec Palace. He faced a Mexican firing squad shortly thereafter.

The political immune system rejects all antibodies of reason: The transition from Mike Pence to JD Vance, from Jim Mattis to Pete Hegseth represents purification.

QUALITY V. QUANTITY(Days 11-30)

FDR produced fifteen major pieces of ***legislation*** in his Hundred Days. Trump signed seventy-three executive orders. But they’re not the same.

Context matters desperately here: Roosevelt responded to 25% unemployment. Bread lines stretched city blocks. Trump addresses manufactured crises during 3.9% unemployment.

The difference is stark. Emergency amputation versus recreational chainsaw juggling.

These 135+ executive orders aim to rewrite statutory law through fiat. The Department of Education exists by congressional mandate. Trump and Elon Musk have declared it abolished. Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" pales in comparison to this constitutional overreach.

THE MUSK MACHINE: PLUTOCRACY AS GOVERNANCE (Days 31-50)

Historical parallels require deep excavation: The British East India Company once governed territories as a private corporation. It collapsed under the weight of conflated commercial and governmental interests. The "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) recalls the Teapot Dome scandal. Trump appears to have missed this history lessons.

Musk calls Social Security "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time." This isn't opinion—it's groundwork for dismantling America's most successful anti-poverty program outside legislative channels.

Tech oligarchs stood at attention during the inauguration. Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg—a visual manifesto of wealth as power.

Charlie Sykes, conservative commentator, diagnoses the administration precisely: "A focused agenda meets reckless incompetence." The agenda serves the wealthy. Government becomes their instrument rather than their regulator.

THE TARIFF TANTRUM: ECONOMIC SELF-IMMOLATION (Days 51-70)

Trump imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods. This exceeds the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariffs (59.1%) that deepened the Great Depression. A new ABC/Washington Post/Ipsos poll shows 72% of Americans now expect recession. Such pessimism last emerged when Lehman Brothers collapsed.