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In a first month that could generously be described as a political demolition derby, the new administration has careened from one self-inflicted crisis to another, creating a spectacle that is equal parts reckless and surreal. With an almost admirable commitment to the art of unforced errors, the White House has turned governance into a high-stakes improvisation act, where hasty decisions are followed by equally frantic reversals, leaving onlookers—both foreign and domestic—alternately aghast and amused. 

Perhaps nothing better encapsulates this than the dizzying about-face on mass firings within the National Nuclear Security Administration. In what was billed as a bold cost-cutting measure but quickly revealed itself as an act of bureaucratic self-sabotage, hundreds of federal workers responsible for safeguarding the nation’s nuclear arsenal found themselves abruptly fired—many only realizing it when their keycards failed at the office door. This, in an agency currently overseeing a $750 billion nuclear modernization effort. Because if there’s one thing that screams “sound decision-making,” it’s gutting the workforce that manages America’s most dangerous stockpiles. 

Predictably, the backlash was swift. A frantic memo issued less than 24 hours later attempted to undo the carnage, reinstating all but 28 employees. But the damage was done. Employees who had devoted decades to securing the country’s most sensitive materials were now questioning whether they wanted to return to work for an administration that viewed them as expendable. Experts, meanwhile, warned that the spectacle was more than just an HR blunder—it was an international signal of instability in the very systems that define global deterrence. 

The nuclear fiasco is merely one tile in the mosaic of chaos. The administration has also managed to baffle allies by suddenly warming to Moscow’s talking points, flirted with authoritarian tendencies that suggest a deep admiration for oligarchic rule, and stumbled into legal minefields with a breathtaking lack of foresight. Governance, it seems, is being run like a reality show, where plot twists take precedence over planning, and the only consistency is inconsistency. 

It is, as the saying goes, a masterclass in haste making waste. The question, though, is whether this is all just a storm of incompetence—or something more deliberate. Either way, the result is the same: a government that is setting records for self-inflicted wounds while the world watches, equal parts horrified and entertained.