Examining Trump's Presidency: Digital Influence, Transgender Rights, and White-Collar Pardons
A late November Pew Research Center study finds that only 3% of US adults use Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Donald Trump. The platform restricts public access to his statements, raising questions about transparency and his mental state. Trump uses Truth Social to announce policies on the economy and travel bans, significantly shaping perceptions of his administration. Notably, in early December, Trump posted 158 times within three hours, prompting concerns about his time management and mental health. Among controversial posts, on December 1 he described Somali Americans with racist language that media largely overlooked. He also disseminated misinformation, such as incorrectly announcing a Brown University shooting suspect was in custody, later corrected within minutes. Trump has reposted AI-generated and contextless videos, including one promoting dubious 'med bed hospitals' and another showing men in military dress set to dance music, amplifying concerns about his understanding of digital content. Emmitt Riley III comments that mainstream media amplification of Trump's sparse Truth Social activity reveals erratic behavior. Public response varies as the GOP prepares for midterm elections amid concerns about Trump's cognitive decline at age 79, the oldest person inaugurated as president.
Concurrently, the Trump administration intensifies actions against transgender rights. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to block medical treatments for transgender youth and withhold federal funding, including Medicaid, from hospitals providing such care. The FDA issued warning letters to vendors of nonmedical gender-affirming products, including ShapeShifter Apparel and TomboyX, for failing to register devices, threatening seizures or injunctions. This is part of a broader federal effort anchored by an executive order affirming two immutable sexes and aligning federal documents accordingly. A House bill would criminalize transgender care with penalties up to 10 years. The administration appointed David Geier and Mehmet Oz to lead autism, vaccine research, and CMS respectively, raising concerns about endorsing unproven treatments. Advocates warn criminalizing care will drive transgender individuals underground, increasing health risks. The piece emphasizes that transgender and nonbinary people have always existed and that attempts to erase them cause suffering rather than elimination.
The Trump administration also exhibits a pattern of pardoning convicted white-collar criminals and halting investigations. Binance, implicated in aiding extremist groups by 2023, saw its founder Changpeng Zhao plead guilty to money laundering in 2024 and agree to a $4.3 billion penalty. Zhao was pardoned by Trump in October 2025, who framed this as correcting Biden administration cryptocurrency policies. Families of the 7 October attack victims are pursuing class-action suits against Binance. Other pardons extended to figures like Henry Cuellar, Alexander Sittenfeld, and David Gentile, whose sentence was commuted. Public Citizen reports indicate about one-third of previously targeted corporations now evade enforcement due to Trump decisions. Boeing's DOJ conspiracy-to-defraud-US case relating to deadly crashes was dropped following a nearly $700 million fine that was undone after a donation to Trump's inauguration fund. Major cryptocurrency investigations of Crypto.com and Coinbase were shelved, while Binance assisted a UAE-linked group to access advanced U.S. technology. The administration has weakened independent agencies including the SEC, FTC, CFPB, and EPA, effectively ending U.S. regulatory independence and enabling exploitations by autocrats, traffickers, and criminals. This period is described as a "good year" for white-collar criminals but a destabilizing era for markets and public accountability, with systemic risks including ecological damage, recession, and terrorism looming.
