Comment: How Trump’s 3 architects have aided in nation’s decline
Published 1:30 am Friday, January 16, 2026
By Carl P. Leubsdorf / The Dallas Morning News
Tuesday marks the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, ending a year that will likely go down as one of the most damaging in the American presidency’s 237-year history.
Since returning to office, Trump has presided over an administration that shredded the economic safety net for millions, rolled back a half-century of civil rights advances, threatened the long-term health of Americans, interfered in countless aspects of American life and unsettled U.S. allies from Canada to the Far East.
In the public’s view, he failed to do much toward resolving one of the two major issues that elected him, the increasing unaffordability of day-to-day life. And he created grave doubts about his methods for mass deportation to curb illegal immigration.
As president, Trump bears ultimate responsibility for his administration’s misdeeds, many of which face legal challenges to be resolved ultimately by the Supreme Court.
But three top appointees — Stephen Miller, Russell Vought and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are, along with the president, the architects of the most damaging aspects of Trump 2.0. Most other top officials are primarily enablers.
Here is a rundown:
Miller: Far more powerful than his title of deputy White House chief of staff for policy, Miller has been the main architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policies and his efforts to curb civil rights programs and other so-called “woke” policies, both within the government and beyond it in universities and law firms.
He set numerical targets for deporting illegal immigrants that led to detention and deportation of some legal residents and even citizens.
Though descended from Jewish immigrants who fled Eastern European oppression, Miller encouraged policies ending asylum for victims of personal and political repression and eliminating most legal immigration, except for white South Africans and conservative white Europeans.
He was also a principal architect of the legally questionable effort to usurp traditional state and local law enforcement authority by sending federal and National Guard troops into major cities in the name of reducing crime and assisting anti-immigration efforts.
Miller also urged such Trump foreign policy moves as overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and threatening Greenland’s independence.
Vought: As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought picked up where Tesla founder Elon Musk left off in slashing federal personnel and programs, especially those that helped the poor at home and abroad.
The mastermind behind many of the conservative Project 2025 recommendations that form the basis of Trump’s second-term policies, Vought has long believed the executive branch can refuse to spend funds appropriated by Congress. A Supreme Court test looms later this year.
Vought, also budget director in Trump’s first term, is one of the main advocates of the “unitary executive theory.” It contends the president has total authority over the executive branch and can fire members of semi-independent commissions and other officials who oppose his policies.
He encouraged the sharp cutback in federal government health and food programs incorporated in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Congress passed and in the emergency food and health programs that were eliminated by dismantling governmental foreign aid programs. He also unilaterally blocked funds for environmental projects in Democratic-run states.
Kennedy: As secretary of health and human services, he implemented without detailed study an array of damaging policies reflecting his long-held contrarian beliefs after promising senators in confirmation hearings that he would weigh scientific expertise.
By limiting the government’s recommended immunization regimen, his appointees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged those who contend without scientific evidence that many vaccines are unsafe and may jeopardize the long-term health prospects for millions.
This year has already seen the first two significant outbreaks in a generation of measles, likely exacerbated by Kennedy’s refusal to take a firm stand in favor of anti-measles vaccinations.
More recently, his department issued revised guidelines for what American should eat, adopting the view of many nutritionists against eating processed foods and sugary drinks but reversing decades of warnings that over-consumption of red meats, butter and whole milk contribute to heart disease. They also abandoned recommendations for daily limits on alcohol consumption.
Kennedy also canceled billions of dollars from scientific research that included hundreds of clinical trials by the National Institutes of Health, but Congress is reversing his actions.
Trump, himself, initiated many questionable policies, from seeking to end birthright citizenship to imposing import tariffs.
He turned the traditionally semi-independent Justice Department into an instrument of retribution by ordering prosecution on dubious charges of longtime critics, like former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump ignored warnings from trade experts by imposing import tariffs — ad hoc and changeably — on countries that he claims took advantage of the United States. He encouraged increased use of coal and other fossil fuels, while dismantling environmental projects using alternate fuels like wind power.
He implemented a more muscular but inconsistent foreign policy, flouting traditional U.S. alliances and seeking closer ties with such longtime foes as Russia and China.
He claims he ended eight wars. But his pro-Russia policies failed to end the bloody four-year war in Ukraine, and his imposition on Israel of a Gaza cease-fire failed to bring progress toward a more permanent Mideast peace.
His campaign of breaking norms and imposing his own instinctual views has inspired a spate of lawsuits. Their outcome will ultimately determine the extent of long-term damage by the most unpopular re-elected president in U.S. history.
Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Email him at carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com. ©2026 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
