Podcast reflects on the first 100 days of Trump

Good Faith podcast host Curtis Chang recently sat down with New York Times columnist David French and Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today, for a Zoom discussion about the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term.

Chang approached the conversation by having each panelist reflect on how his impressions have changed since Trump won his reelection bid. He played clips showing each panelist’s initial reactions to Trump’s reelection from a prior podcast on November 6.

Moore and French both reported feeling exhausted last November.

With Trump’s reelection, Moore said, he knew there was going to be a lot of drama—“drama that is going to be, you know, in every American’s life, all the time from now on.” And, he said he thinks actually, “a lot of people like that.”

But he felt reassured, because Americans had been intentional about who they elected. No one had been “hoodwinked,” and Moore said that was reassuring to him, because people “know the drama they’re signing up for.”

In November, he saw the challenge as being how to navigate the drama, spiritually, without being completely “driven down by it,” regardless of political persuasion.

Chang noted Moore seemed to be right about people being exhausted by the drama, citing recent polls that show 1 in 4 Trump voters now disapproves of the job Trump is doing.

But Moore said he’s less exhausted now than he was in November, because he’s developed a kind of “carbon monoxide detector” to help navigate the exhaustion.

Moore noted he discovered less time on social media resulted in him feeling “much less anxious and much less angry,” an anger he explained was rooted in “the fact that nobody seems to be angry or concerned about what is quite obviously … a crazy time in the country.”

But limiting how much social media he consumes has helped with those feelings, Moore explained.

On November 6, French noted a similar exhaustion after the election and wondered what that exhaustion “should lead us to do.”

Defend vulnerable people and tell the truth

French noted those like himself, who have the resources to weather the effects of the current political situation in the United States, still have a responsibility to “defend the vulnerable and speak the truth.”

“If we give in to despair,” French noted, “that’s going to lead us to retreat into our own sort of cocoon, our own bubble, right? So, we have to lean out of that and into the defense of people.”

French also said in November that even if one isn’t a lawyer or legislator, individuals can “stand up for the dignity, for the humanity of vulnerable people.”

Chang asked French to explain what he’d “seen done to truth and to the vulnerable” in the first 100 days of this Trump administration.

French said with a history of covering President Trump through the years, he “knew truth and defending the vulnerable would be a salient aspect of responding to these times.”

But he noted, “I had no idea how quickly and how dramatically we would reach a point” of vulnerable people being exploited and where the “truth was being destroyed.”

French emphasized he was “not new here,” and acknowledged from his time around Trump and the Trump movement for the past nine years, he “knew this was a movement that lies as easily as it breathes.”

He said he also knew to expect a major effort “toward mass deportations.”

“I had an intellectual knowledge that you would have dishonesty,” and that vulnerable populations would be attacked, he said.

“But I had no idea how comprehensively you would see an attack on the truth” and on the vulnerable, French said.

He noted another thing he “absolutely did not expect at all was how many powerful institutions would completely, not just abandon the field, but essentially just yield to Trump.”

In Trump’s first term, he’d taken comfort in many pieces of civil society—including resistance from within the Republican party and the administration and opposition from Democrats—who figuratively would “throw their body” in front of some of the worst actions Trump attempted.

But “by and large” this time the president is not surrounded by wise counselors and advisers, but by “enablers,” French said.

So, while the “attack on the vulnerable was so immediate and so dramatic, it is the breakdown of civil society, in response” and the lineup of billionaires at the inauguration and the oligarchy on display there that really surprised French, he noted.

He hasn’t been especially surprised by Trump’s behavior, French said, because “Trump is Trump.”

However, he has been surprised and alarmed by the response to Trump’s demands by some of the most powerful people and institutions in the United States.

French said the spectacle of wealthy, powerful law firms and institutions “tripping all over themselves to give into” Trump’s demands, even unlawful ones, was “staggering to [him].”

“They’re acting as if they hold no cards. They’re acting as if Trump can control them at a whim, and that’s just absolutely not the case. It’s shocking to me,” he observed.

Turning towards Ukraine

Chang’s November comments related to going into “avoidance mode.” He said the election was a “disaster for our country,” but a boon to his “to-do list.”

But after he stopped throwing himself into being busy, he realized what he was feeling about the election was anger, wanting to blame someone, sadness and even anguish—especially for immigrants, the vulnerable and the people of Ukraine.

So, he turned the conversation to what has happened in the Russian war against Ukraine in the first 100 days of President Trump’s second administration. He asked French to weigh in on Ukraine.

French said, again, he was aware of Trump’s history of disliking Ukraine before he returned to office, and was “extremely pessimistic” about how Trump would treat Ukraine in this term.

He noted for some extreme factions of MAGA, Vladimir Putin is a “hero” whom they admire as an example of strong Christian nationalism in opposition to the “woke, weak West.”

French also pointed out some conspiracy-minded MAGA diehards blame Ukraine for impeachment investigations into Trump and Russia after 2016 and consider Ukraine a “villain.”

But when “negotiations” got underway, he didn’t expect Trump to “lean entirely on Ukraine” with “Putin’s demands, in essence,” and on American allies to support Ukraine less, French noted.

And at first, he didn’t see the “trade war” with the United States’ closest allies for what it actually is. It’s not just isolationism, French asserted.

Trump sees things in terms of influence spheres, and Trump sees Ukraine as within Putin’s “sphere of influence,” French explained. The responsibility of the smaller country, in Trump’s estimation, is to “yield to the bigger country.”

“That’s what he’s demanding of Canada, Denmark and Mexico,” he said.

And he noted, this is Zelensky’s offense to Trump and a “very Putinesque” way of seeing things—which helps make sense of America “essentially switching sides in the conflict.”

In November, French only anticipated a “worst case scenario” of some sort of neutrality that benefitted Russia, “but we’ve seen something beyond that … a switching of teams.”

And it’s such an emergency in the “geopolitics of the moment” and “in the history of the world,” European countries are reacting dramatically to the shift, French said. This “shaking at the core of our alliances” can’t easily be undone.

Chang asked Moore how to listen to the dark observations from French and “maintain your carbon monoxide detector” for managing anxiety.

Moore said when people “feel powerless” about specific aspects of what’s happening—such as concern for Ukrainian churches being bombed by Russia or people being laid off by DOGE cuts—they want to do something, but don’t know what they can do.

Moore said sometimes the answer to managing anxiety is to “embrace the broken heartedness.”

Chang agreed, noting “grief” may be a necessary step to navigating the unclear path forward from here.

The full podcast can be watched here.