It is difficult to imagine all that this country has been through in just one year of Donald Trump’s second term as president. The single year seems like what some call  “a dog year,” equal to seven years. And there are three more years to come.

If Trump has excelled at anything it is distracting people with his ceaseless mind-blowing actions including rude remarks to U.S. allies, excavators ripping down the East Wing of the White House without government approvals, the whipsaw of tariffs threatened and then retracted and then imposed, proposed sovereign land grabs and, at Trump’s worst, his support for federal immigration agents killing two American citizens in Minnesota street protests.

It is easy to become desensitized to Trump’s tidal wave of illegal initiatives. The mind can absorb only so much.

This one-year anniversary is a good time to push aside the veil that distracts us to pay attention to the totality of what Trump has done in only 365 days to cause some structural damage to governance that might be difficult to reverse.

Ideas showcases stories, opinion and analysis about Hawaiʻi, from the state’s sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email news@civilbeat.org to submit an idea or an essay.

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Tantamount is Trump’s transformation of the presidency into a singular powerhouse never before experienced in peacetime America, a push for executive control that ignores the checks and balances Americans depend on to curb authoritarian rule.

This transformed executive branch probably will remain in place. If and when Democrats regain the presidency, they will likely want to retain the expanded powers for their elected leader so he or she can speedily do what they want.

In Hawaiʻi as in all the states, the effects of Trump’s reign have been profound.

Paramount are the elimination of rights and programs for minorities and huge cuts in federal jobs and federal funding.

Gov. Josh Green says cutbacks by the federal government have taken $3 billion out of Hawaiiʻs economy. Green said during his state of the state speech on Monday that he will propose letting the income tax cuts go through in 2026 but pause them for 2027 through 2029. That would give the state $1.8 billion to put toward food security and child care for the most needy.

Last week, on the opening day of the Legislature, House Speaker Nadine Nakamura told reporters: “You know, every day something new gets thrown at us. We donʻt know if we have felt it all yet.”

For Hawaiʻi residents, living day by day, there are the effects of inflation — the soaring costs Trump promised to end but did not. Food and almost everything else is more expensive, giving Democrats a good word to use in future campaigns: “affordability.” So much no longer seems affordable, even simple meals at fast-food restaurants.

I treated a friend to breakfast recently at Jack in the Box in Waipahu. The bill was $26 and we were ordering inexpensively. Looking at the menu that day, some single burger combo meals cost more than $20.

Inflation as well as other factors such as the Trump administration’s reduction of government travel and the decline in Canadian visitors — some Canadians are now boycotting the islands because of Trump’s bullying — have hurt Hawaiʻi’s tourism industry. 

During Year 1 of Trump II, Hawaiʻi’s Attorney General Anne Lopez has had some successes in pausing or halting Trump’s executive overreach, either by joining other states in lawsuits or by filing cases directly. Some of the 39 lawsuits still are going forward in the courts.

In an email, she said the litigation efforts have prevented the loss of hundreds of millions of federal fund for Hawaiʻi that had been approved by Congress. That includes $500 million owed to the state by FEMA, including $21 million for the Hawaiʻi Disaster Case Management Program, $365 million in federal transportation funds, $89 million in grants to the Department of Health, $33 million in funds for the Department of Education and $100 million in grants to the University of Hawaiʻi.

When it comes to Trumpʻs harsh tactics to curb illegal immigration, all eyes are on Minnesota and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who fatally shot two U.S. citizens. Hawaiʻi has avoided such killing and most raids, but last year there was an unprecedented number of deportations, arrests and detention of immigrants living in the islands.

According to the Deportation Data Project, ICE arrests in Hawaii increased 227% last year from 2024. That is 203 arrested compared to 62 in 2024.

I treated a friend to breakfast recently at Jack in the Box in Waipahu. The bill was $26 and we were ordering inexpensively.

Honolulu immigration attorney Neribel Chardon says that’s sparked heightened concern now even from green card holders who are going about their business lawfully and want to become naturalized citizens.

“The tone is fear. They call our office to ask if they are at risk, worried someone is coming to get them,” says Chardon, senior staff attorney at The Legal Clinic, a nonprofit offering education and  legal services to immigrants.

Chardon says more immigrants are incarcerated in the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu for civil offenses for which they would not have been locked up in the past and they end up staying there longer.

She says it is very difficult now for a detainee to get a bond hearing to be released from incarceration before trial. “This is about a terrible lack of due process fundamental to this nation,” she said.

Another deep effect on Hawaiʻi of Trump II has been the elimination or defunding of programs meant to help Native Hawaiians, and a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court is more  likely to rule in favor of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to end Kamehameha Schools admissions preference for Native Hawaiians.

Trumpʻs changes have generated gloom across the country — yet there is an interesting development. More and more people are showing up to protest, and not just the usual Democrats who dislike him, but people in communities that supported him.

In a recent study,  Harvard Kennedy School professor Erica Chenoweth noted in 2025 protests were larger and more persistent but also stretched deeper into Trump country than at almost any time since Trumpʻs first term.

Locally, Lisa Gibson of Indivisible Hawaii — the group that has sponsored most of Hawaiʻi’s large protests — says there have been five big events this year and ongoing weekly protests including at the Tesla dealership, in Kailua town, in Hawaiʻi Kai and on the neighbor islands.

She says when Indivisible started its Trump II protests in April last year with its “Hands Off” demonstration, about 2,000 people showed up. At its “No Kings/No Dictators” rally in October, she said more than 22,000 participated in large and small rallies across the state.

“What is different is people who had never participated are joining in, people who lost their jobs in federal budget cuts, including health care workers and veterans who had their health services reduced, many people whose lives have been directly impacted by Trump,” Gibson says. “Itʻs a lengthy list.”

Nanci Kreidman co-founded the group Allies in Resistance, which last March launched the stateʻs first large protest of Trump focusing on the presidentʻs dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Since then, Kreidman has participated in most of the other gatherings and agrees with Gibson that demonstrations are getting larger and attracting people who might not have shown up before.

“How can people watch what is going on and not be compelled to act?” Kreidman says. “It will be a long journey but isn’t that what it’s about?”