Kimberly O'Connor

Hi friends! Did you know that when you visit whitehouse.gov, you get a sidebar popup that reads “Welcome to the Golden Age?” Try it! It make take a minute, but the wait is fascinating.

I went to whitehouse.gov as I tried to make sense of 2025 in terms of executive orders. Trump issued about 220 orders in 2025, which was more than in his entire first term. For comparison, Biden issued about 162 orders during his term; Obama issued about 225 during his two terms.

Full disclosure: I spent about 15 minutes asking Chat GPT to help me factfind around executive orders from 2025, because if there’s something I’d rather pour out a bottle of water than do myself, it’s research the Trump presidency. I also found this handy list of executive orders at ballotpedia. Just a few days after I started this post, we had a new one, “Celebrating American Greatness with Motor Racing:”

INDYCAR racing is a source of pride and entertainment for our Nation, which is why I am pleased to announce the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. This race, the first motor race ever to be held in our Nation’s capital near the National Mall, will showcase the majesty of our great city as drivers navigate a track around our iconic national monuments in celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

Wow. But I digress. It’s so easy to get distracted!

Here’s how Chatty G summarized the impact 2025 Trump’s executive orders “from the perspective of a citizen concerned about his policies:”

Trump’s 2025 executive orders had concrete and troubling impacts that extended beyond symbolism. Executive Order 14168, which required federal agencies to define sex as strictly male or female, immediately narrowed access to healthcare, housing protections, and federal services for transgender Americans. Executive Order 14190 on “ending radical indoctrination” pressured K–12 schools and educators, creating confusion and fear around curricula on race, gender, and U.S. history.

Immigration-related actions reinstating hardline asylum policies and declaring expanded border emergencies disrupted families and strained local governments and courts. Orders rescinding dozens of Biden-era climate and environmental actions weakened protections tied to air quality, public lands, and climate resilience. Technology-focused orders, including those banning work on a central bank digital currency, constrained future policy options without public debate.

Well said. Again, you can see all the executive orders here–so far we have several new ones for February.

So–let’s process this? I’ve actually been stuck at this point in this post for over two weeks. What’s my point here, that these executive orders are bad? That I don’t like these executive orders? YES! But I am not sure, honestly, what we need to do to process them, except for acknowledging them by paying attention and speaking out. So for today, that’s all I’m going to do. I started this post in late January, and I’ve been stuck. In the meantime, stuff keeps happening. I just opened my email and right after an email inviting me to hear a scientist talk about her climate research at the school where I work, I had a “breaking news” email from the NYT: Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change. (I gifted the article, so the link should be free for a few weeks from this post’s publication date.)

Wow.

In the meantime, I’m tired. Are you? I woke to a text from a dear friend sharing their overwhelm, and I identify. On Tuesday, I had to cancel my afternoon and lay down on the floor. So let’s close with a short list of ways we might take a break and stop overwhelm for a while:

1. Just stop. In a fabulous workshop on overwhelm long ago with Amy Brady’s Stand Up, this was the most powerful suggestion I encountered. The argument here is that when you are overwhelmed, you can’t get anything done anyway. You can flutter and flit, but really, nothing is getting done. So, you stop. Lay down on the floor, take a nap, take a walk, but stop doing whatever it is that is overwhelming you, so you can come back to it when you are calmer.
   
2. Speaking of stopping, maybe stop consuming the news quite so much. It’s okay to give yourself a break.
   
3. Instead, maybe pick one thing to do that feels helpful or good for the world. Download Five Calls and make the calls. They give you a script! Or make soup for your neighbor. Make a donation to the ACLU, or the local news outlet in your area (yay Colorado Sun!) . Pet a dog.
   
4. Notice five good things in your life. What are you grateful for? I am preaching to myself here–I’ve had a rough week. But I am grateful for the friends who listened to me cry and rage about my week, the sunshine, the sound of running water from a fountain outside, the dinner I will eat, and this guy:

Love to you! I’ll be back in a week or two.