From First to Worst - Astounding the World in 80 Days
On January 20th, we watched as the United States inaugurated its 47th President, a moment that, for many, signalled the beginning of an unpredictable new chapter. Now, just on 80 days later, we’ve gone from anxious anticipation to global astonishment. Not the kind sparked by wonder but the jaw-clenching kind born from watching a superpower sprint from leadership to isolation, torching trade routes, alienating allies and dismantling decades of cooperation along the way.
In less than three months, we’ve seen treaties ripped up, tariffs slammed down and trusted partnerships treated like soured real estate deals. A Jules Verne novel would have us marvelling at human ingenuity. Tragically, in our lived horror story, we find ourselves grim-faced, gripping the edge of the page, wondering how much worse it will get before the last chapter.
As Trump returned to office, he invoked the Gilded Age with reverence, praising it as a golden era of American wealth, industry and dominance. A time, in his words, when the nation was at a peak of greatness. It was a curious point of reference. The Gilded Age, after all, was a time of opulence but it was also a time of ruthless inequality, corruption and control by the few. And it was in that very same historical moment — 1872 — that Jules Verne set his story of Around the World in Eighty Days, sending the fictional Phileas Fogg off on a tightly-timed journey through a world in flux. The overlap is telling. Both figures, fictional and real, began their journeys amid global change but where Fogg ventured outwards, navigating with calculation and curiosity, Trump has turned inwards, governed not by wonder or purpose but by greed.
And greed rarely travels alone. As Fogg had his faithful companion Passepartout, so Trump is lockstepped with his own travelling partner, Elon Musk. But where Passepartout brought resourcefulness and humanity to the journey, Musk is a companion of destruction, seemingly intent on wrecking the ship before it leaves the dock rather than sailing towards a future of positive purpose.
Chapter I – Setting the Home Fires Burning
Fogg’s fictional journey began with precision and quiet determination. Trump’s began with fury. His return to power unleashed a torrent — not of adventure, but of vengeance. The first steps of his new presidential chapter were not diplomatic or economic. They were deeply personal, targeting the rights, protections and dignity of the American people. Trump’s journey looked inwards – attacking citizens, undermining protections and clearing the path for authoritarian control.
Within weeks, social security protections were stripped back, veterans were thrown aside and decades of progress toward equity and inclusion were rapidly undone. The policies that helped shape a more just society were erased overnight, cast as ideological enemies rather than national assets.
And now, in the name of electoral ‘safeguarding’, the reintroduced SAVE Act threatens to silence millions of legitimate voters. In demanding documentary proof of citizenship at the point of registration, the Act risks disenfranchising women who’ve changed their names, low-income voters, young people and long-marginalised communities. The Brennan Centre for Justice estimates more than 21 million Americans could be affected, a scale of impact that strips any pretence of neutral administration.
This is no patriotic protection plan. It is systemic erasure.
Chapter II – Crossing Borders, Alienating Allies, Courting Adversaries
In Verne’s tale, Fogg moved from country to country with respect, diplomacy and purpose. In Trump’s version, every mile travelled has cost a friend. Canada and Mexico, the United States’ closest neighbours, were among the first to be targeted. Canada was hit with sweeping tariffs and patronising rhetoric. Mexico was subject to both economic punishment and militarised threats. The language turned feral. Crude public statements, forced press conferences and an absurd suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state. Oh, and Greenland too - ripped into the mayhem and paraded through the media.
Further afield, things worsened. The visit of President Zelenskyy to the White House, intended as a reaffirmation of Western unity and support instead became a public humiliation. Rude, dismissive and steeped in disdain, the Oval Office signalled to allies that diplomacy and courtesy were no longer shared values.
Each public utterance since has served only to stoke division. Threats hurled at France, sneers at Germany, mockery aimed at the United Nations. The crowning moment in this parade of estrangement came with overtures to Moscow. Step by step, mile by mile, long-standing allies have been turned into suspicious observers, while adversaries have been courted with alarming intent.
Chapter III – Global Systems dismantled, World Trade on Life Support
Eighty days in, the impact is no longer theoretical. The red lines of stock markets circle the globe, cutting deep into the story. Trust has evaporated, markets have plunged and recession is an encroaching reality.
Tariffs imposed with bravado, zero strategy and really bad maths have set off retaliatory spirals. Trade partners have cut ties, supply chains are broken and entire sectors, from agriculture to automotive to technology, are staggering. Investment is fleeing. Jobs are evaporating. International cooperation is frozen.
In Verne’s world, every stop brought connection. Here, every decision severs another cord.
Chapter IV – Towards Home and Shadows of a Gathering Storm
As the administration’s wreckage sinks back on itself, the domestic landscape in the US darkens further. The SAVE Act is not the only tool of suppression. Rumours are now circulating that Trump may declare martial law on 20 April (a date coincidentally aligned with Adolf Hitler’s birthday). The idea may have surfaced from a viral TikTok but the growing unease is rooted in reality.
On that date, a joint report is due from the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary of Homeland Security outlining ‘conditions’ at the southern border. The report flows directly from one of the President’s earliest executive orders - a declaration of national emergency. Whether or not the Insurrection Act is formally invoked, the timing is ominous. Protests are already planned for 19 April, mirroring last weekend’s nationwide mobilisation. If the administration seeks to paint civil dissent as disorder, the mechanisms for suppression are quietly lining up. Couple that with the penalties and lock outs of mainstream media and the First Amendment lies in tatters in the dust.
Meanwhile, whispers of a military parade - tanks rolling through Washington D.C. to mark both the President’s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army - further signal a move not just towards authoritarian imagery but authoritarian intent.
This isn’t leadership. It’s dark and dangerous theatre that sets the stage for something far more sinister than mere spectacle.
Epilogue – A Different Kind of Voyage
Verne gave us a ‘character with character’ flawed, but who demonstrated that with courage, commitment and ingenuity, the world could be circled and better understood. What we are seeing now is the inverse, a journey marked not by connection but collapse. And as headlines suggest there will be a steady queue of nations ready to pay homage at the court of King Trump in an attempt to soften economic blows, the global community must instead have the courage and conviction to choose a different path.
The world needs to stand firm — and stand together. If the United States insists on turning inward, so be it. America is not the only country on the planet. What we have witnessed in these long, noisy and exhausting weeks isn’t a policy shift or a political cycle. It’s an unravelling. One that’s been rapid, deliberate and devastating. The US has journeyed from first to worst, not as metaphor but in measurable decline of influence, of integrity and of any claim to global stewardship.
There are several billion of us living, breathing and doing all manner of good elsewhere on the planet. Together we can forge new partnerships, stronger systems and healthier relationships - social, economic and diplomatic. But we must do it - and do with urgency.
Let the US have the space to see sense and divest itself of its troublesome captains. We can step away, wish its citizens well and help them where we can to regroup, heal and rediscover the value of genuine friendship. But until then we sail forward, waving farewell to Lady Liberty from the deck.
This new journey will take much longer than 80 days but together we can arrive at a future defined by shared values, reciprocal respect and mutual progress.
So, let the voyage begin today - we can’t afford to miss the boat.