In the early days of the second Trump Administration, the sheer volume, pace and breadth of his executive orders is breathtaking. It is hard to absorb the reach with which he is imposing his will, or perhaps the will of his MAGA base and corporate sponsors, on the U.S. government and society writ large. The opening line of B.J. Thomas’s 1968 hit “Hooked on a Feeling” seems like a good analogy for what so many are enduring. While there are some real zingers in Trump’s avalanche of orders, most of them, individually, are neither surprising nor particularly out of the norm from those of previous incoming Administrations. But when taken in their totality, I can’t stop this feeling that we are witnessing something truly unsettling in the way our country is governed.

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It is easy to point to the raw hypocrisy of watching dozens of police beaters go free after Trump’s blanket pardon of the Jan. 6 defendants and convicted felons while simultaneously he orders the termination of Justice Department consent decrees for Milwaukee and Louisville police departments under the mantra “Back the Blue.” It is even historically concerning that he is borrowing from the annals of Nazi Germany’s demand for people to turn in their Jewish neighbors when he threatens any federal worker with “adverse consequences” if they do not turn in any colleague who may be defying the order to “purge diversity, equity and inclusion efforts from their agencies.” I am curious. What exactly does defying the order look like? If a Black lesbian is hired for a position when the hiring freeze is lifted, should we assume that the hiring authority defied the purge?

The more striking orders relate to ending birthright citizenship, largely seen as blatantly unconstitutional, and the complete ignoring of the 1883 Pendleton Act that established the current civil service system based on merit, not political patronage. To make it a tidy trifecta, let me throw in the order to stop any disbursements appropriated by Congress under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in direct violation of the 1974 Impoundment Act.

If the Constitutional check on the presidency, aka Congress and the Judiciary, sit by and quietly allow this dismantling of our legal and constitutional legacies, they will not only be guilty of dereliction of duty, but wholly complicit in the effort. Frankly, I am not optimistic given Speaker Johnson’s response to Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons when he said, “I don’t second guess the president and frankly, peaceful protesters shouldn’t be prosecuted.” Stunning rewrite of history to say the very least, but also a red beacon for just how neutered the Congressional check on the Trump White House will be.

The second mission is short-sighted and will ultimately prove counterproductive. Purging every government agency, advisory body, commission, or other official entity of anyone who didn’t vote for Trump is throwing a school bus of babies out with the bath water. During my military and civil service careers, I served under every president from Jimmy Carter to Joe Biden. I never brought my personal politics to the office. I never ran into another colleague who performed their duties with any motivation other than the laws and the Constitution of the land. The paranoia with which Trump is ordering his team to purge the professional civil servants, not political appointees, is going to gut the agencies of decades of expertise. When that 3 a.m. phone call comes, I sure hope there is someone smarter than Trump or Hegseth to offer solutions.

It is time to wake up and watch with our eyes wide open. Our nation’s future depends on it. And I really would like to get rid of this feeling.

Brad Gutierrez, Ph.D., is a retired U.S. Air Force combat pilot, professor of political science, military diplomat, and senior public policy civil servant. He is a woodworker and nonfiction writer based in Marshall.

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