Donald Trump’s First Year Report Card Made Public: D+

We have found President Donald Trump’s second term White House report card. Before he prevents its publication—as he did for his record in business school—I present it here.

Trump spent 2025 in a full-throated effort to destroy US democracy. His preferred form of rule is totalitarianism where all institutions, political parties, and the masses are subservient to state control. In some subjects, Donald succeeded remarkably well: in forming a federal police state, controlling the media, and making money for the Trump name. But he earns only a D+ because he doesn’t pay attention, never reads, spells poorly (covfefe?), has an F in economics (Tariffs?? Inflation? Skyrocketing deficit? Affordability?), cheats at everything (golf?), and has failed to silence the American public.

Law and Order: C-

Initially, Americans accepted nighttime arrests, like those of Josef Stalin’s secret sadistic police thugs. Trump unleashed untrained, violent federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on the public, many of whom have failed drug tests, have disqualifying criminal backgrounds, and don’t meet physical or academic requirements to serve. His minions have orchestrated the extrajudicial incarcerations and exiles, but most of those arrested have no criminal history. Ultimately, the courts rejected extralegal arrests, and the Supreme Court ruled that the dictator cannot order US troops into democratic cities.

Buying Influence and Getting Paid for It: A-

Russian President Vladimir Putin has socked away billions including in a secret palace, while his gas and oil oligarchs try to keep him content at war. Both dictator Putin and Trump succeeded well in establishing corrupt oligarchic regimes where political power and the ability to make money overlap. There is a close relationship between presidential pardons and presidential enrichment. In fact, money is the raison d'être of Trumpist totalitarianism. His one legislative success, a “big beautiful bill,” makes the rich richer; the poor more poor; and cuts funding for food, housing, and healthcare.

Crushing Political Opponents: C-

At least Trump doesn’t order the assassination of his opponents, like Putin. Instead, he orders the Justice Department to prosecute them. Trump’s arrests extend to officials who stood up to his lies. He ordered aggressive prosecution of: former adviser John Bolton, former FBI director James Comey, and others. He threatens judges, governors and congresspeople.

Quality of Appointees: D+

Purposely, Trump hires people who lack spines. They include: wide-eyed men who ferry their girlfriends around on government jets; former governors who give no-bid multimillion dollar contracts to friends; a dozen DAs who do not know the law; and Pam Bondi. It helps to be a felon—and father of his son-in-law—to become ambassador to France. The long list is covfefe.

Foreign Policy: D-

Dictators are good a bullying neighbors, but the results rarely pan out. Putin is now in the fourth year of a three-day war on Ukraine. Trump has not made Canada the 51st state; has not annexed Greenland; has picked a battle with Venezuela to distract Americans; carried out a secret attack on Yemen through an open app; and his attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was a military and financial failure. Tariffs?

Military Might: B

Trump is striving to destroy US defense capabilities. He hired Christian nationalist Pete Hegseth to purge the Pentagon of flab, women,and African Americans. (Stalin arrested and murdered tens of thousands of leading officers on the eve of World War II—destroying Red Army leadership.). Meanwhile, to augment his Star Trek Space Force, Trump ordered the production of “Trump” class battleships which are obsolete, costly, and vulnerable. Fortunately, the Pentagon is resilient.

Naming Things After Himself: A+

Like Soviet leader Stalin and his ilk, Trump likes to named things after himself, even government buildings, not content with his golf courses, resorts, and towers. He affixes faux gold leaf to his surroundings: the Kennedy Center a la Trump; the Golden Dome missile defense; the Home Depot plastic gold leaf on the White House walls; Trump games and magazines, mobile phones; a failed airline; a failed university; wines; and steaks, vodka, ice, ale, and watches. “A” for effort.

Control of the Media: C+

Donald follows the Putin path. Putin forced all major TV channels to submit to the Kremlin. As Putin said: “There should be patriotically-minded people at the head of state information resources, people who uphold the interests of the Russian Federation. These are state resources. That is the way it is going to be.” Like the coerced appointment of a censor for CBS News, Putin established an inspectorate for IT and mass media to control press and the internet.

Trump’s attack on free speech has involved removing more than 8,000 government web pages; cutting funding to public broadcasting; barring several press organizations from the White House press; and operating his Truth Social White House propaganda outlet to carry out personal attacks on journalists and the media generally, most recently the New York Times, which he called a threat to national security. The attacks on the media have been made easier by their concentration in the hands of Trump oligarchs and appointees who also censor free speech.

Sexual Depravity: D-

Stalin surrounded himself with such criminals as secret police chief and rapist Lavrenty Beria. Putin is now promoting underage marriage to fight against a plummeting Russian fertility rate. Trump stonewalled, obfuscated, and obstructed to keep references to his behavior with underage girls under wraps. But not even hardened MAGites, who at one time tolerated a president convicted of sexual assault, a man who boasted of “pussy grabbing,” think that participation of any sort in the Epstein scandal is appropriate.

The American Public: A+

The wheels of justice were assisted here both by lackeys at the Department of Justice who are failing to cleanse Trump’s name from the Epstein documents, and especially by the American people who prefer democracy to totalitarian rule under a deceitful, bloviating, and narcissistic wannabe dictator who is only in it for the money.