"Since taking office on January 20th, 2025, President Trump has issued dozens of executive orders and begun overhauling the US immigration system," said Petra Molnar, faculty associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, to Bored Panda.
"He has vowed to end birthright citizenship, deport millions of people from the United States, and install increasing surveillance at the border and inland. President Trump has also eliminated the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programmed, banned trans persons from joining the military, ended USAID programs abroad, and threatened to annex Canada and Greenland."
On top of this, Trump pulled America out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the National Health Organization. Additionally, under his orders, from now on, the government acknowledges only two sexes.
To the progressive folks, all of these actions seem like violations of citizen’s freedoms. Not to mention that it's a big step back for America and the world.
"American citizens will lose family members to detention and deportation, many of whom have been in the United States for decades. American citizens will also be facing increased surveillance in their communities as more and more technologies are introduced into spaces of public life, for example for abortion or during protests," explained Molnar.
"Americans will also be impacted by worsening global relations as the United States takes increasingly antagonistic positions geopolitically. Global warming will continue to worsen with few resources devoted to protecting the environment and few aid programs to assist people displaced by natural disasters like the devastating fires in L.A. in January 2025."
However, Justin Buchler, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University, sees no reason for people to spiral into panic.
"Most of the executive orders are either symbolic, minor, or targeted. The most important is only potentially important at this point. That would be the order to eliminate birthright citizenship. I am very skeptical that this order will survive a court challenge, which is why the importance of the order is provisional, but if the courts uphold the order, there are several reasons for its importance."
The elimination of birthright citizenship would directly affect people, significantly change the constitutional law and the structure of citizenship, and demonstrate the expansion of executive power, says Buchler.
"We have not seen the promised tariffs as of yet, and Trump backed away from the Colombia tariff threats when they succeeded in pushing the Colombia government, but we know the tariffs are coming and that they will raise consumer prices. Without seeing the tariffs, though, we cannot see the effects or the consequences of other countries' retaliation. That will be significant," he explained.
"At this point, most Americans will be unaffected, and everyone needs to calm down," assured Buchler.
"Donald Trump has been president before, and it is useful to compare the apocalyptic predictions that his opponents made, and the messianic claims his supporters made to reality. We have a system of limited government, which means that presidents, while powerful in comparative terms, do not control Americans' lives, and most Americans were and will be mostly unaffected," he said to Bored Panda.
"Tariffs will raise consumer prices, and that will be the clearest effect when tariffs are imposed. If Trump's birthright citizenship order is upheld, that will affect a particular category, but most people will be mostly unaffected."
Buchler further explains that the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at the federal level or the order proclaiming that the United States will only recognize two sexes isn't denying anyone's rights.
"That said, there are legal issues, such as Trump's order on birthright citizenship. However, they're legal disputes to be resolved properly in the manner of democracy. The right and the left are driving each other insane. Don't contribute to that process," he advised.
