Kathy Pelleran-Mahoney

The malaise you feel is not just the post-holiday blues. Abuse and neglect, whether experienced by individuals or societies, can have profound, lasting implications. In children and youth, maltreatment can lead to psychological trauma, developmental delays, and long-term behavioral issues. Similarly, when a government is perceived to abuse its power or neglect its citizens, the consequences ripple through civic institutions, public trust, and societal cohesion. This analysis draws parallels between the personal trauma of child maltreatment and the civic trauma associated with the Trump administration’s abuse of power and neglect of public welfare.

Child maltreatment–encompassing physical, emotional, sexual abuse, and neglect– has been linked to a wide array of adverse outcomes including neurodevelopmental damage reflected by altered brain architecture, impaired cognitive function, and disrupted emotional regulation; mental health disorders like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and substance abuse issues according to the Children’s Bureau; and, behavioral and societal consequences that the Centers for Disease Control says children may struggle with academic achievement, social relationships, and are at higher risk for criminal behavior and poverty in adulthood. These outcomes are often compounded poverty, domestic violence, and lack of access to support services.

Similarly, critics of the Trump administration point to various actions that they interpret as abusive or neglectful toward the American public including public health mismanagement, environmental deregulation, civil rights erosion, and disinformation and civic destabilization.

Under Trump 45, they downplayed risks of COVID-19. The Trump administration has further divided our nation on the importance of vaccines. It also eliminated adequate, accessible, and affordable healthcare coverage for 20 million healthcare consumers by cutting healthcare premium tax-credits they used to subsidize their insurance through the Affordable Care Act and its marketplace.

Trump era environmental deregulation has rolled back environmental protections; these are seen as neglecting long-term public health and ecological sustainability, as well as diminishing economic security with related job loss. Public infrastructure developments and incentives for personal investments in alternative-fueled vehicles were paused,

along with associated jobs. That means fewer choices for Americans, while having a chilling effect on consumer confidence.

Civil rights erosion is revealed through federal workers who were fired, retired, or eliminated; immigrants deported, visas terminated, and protective asylum revoked; women’s rights and reproductive freedom jeopardized; targeted LGBTQ+ individuals who lost jobs across federal government and in its funding recipients; and racial minorities who were stripped of military duty and eliminated from federal service history. This is viewed by many as institutional abuse of vulnerable populations. ICE agent brutality in the spate of neighborhood encounters with residents has exposed detaining, maiming and killing citizens as an erosion of civil rights. Where is the oversight to ensure civil rights are respected? Where are our Members of Congress as the administration exacts trauma on the public? In the past 50 years, the social safety-net for our nation’s most vulnerable people has ensured a public service corps that reflects the population it serves. Instead of honoring that approach to public service, the Trump administration has hollowed out nearly 300,000 workers from the public corps. This means longer waiting times for services and even reduced or eliminated public services. The loss of jobs also compounds insecurity in workers and their communities.

Disinformation and civic destabilization is also abusive to citizens. The spread of fabricated claims about election integrity and the undermining of democratic norms and institutions have contributed to civic unrest and distrust. The public questions what’s fact and what’s fiction. Renaming the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts traumatized patrons of the arts. The most recent example of civic destabilization is the trauma inflicted on people in Minneapolis, Minnesota where ICE / Border Patrol Agents clashed with residents and killed two 37-year-olds within two weeks. ICE patrolled neighborhoods and used tear-gas on local people, in addition to killing, maiming, and detaining citizens. For many, the question is whether there was ever a real problem, or did the deployment of agents actually create civil unrest? That doesn’t even consider the deployment of National Guard in cities across the country and in Washington, D.C. during the past six months. Why?

Our people are frightened and traumatized. People don’t know whether they can count on the systems of democracy to protect them and their loved ones. When the public has a difficult time decerning fact from fiction; when public services are minimized or eliminated; when workers who reflect our diverse citizenry are fired or eliminated from the public service corps; and, when government thugs terrorize people in their own communities, it stands to reason that people are experiencing trauma. The current regime has inflicted psychological and institutional harm on the citizenry; they have eroded trust in government and weakened democratic our resilience.

The psychological toll of child abuse and neglect and the societal toll of governmental maltreatment share striking similarities. Both reveal anxiety and distrust. The developmental consequences of child maltreatment show impaired brain and emotional development, while citizen neglect is reflected by an erosion of democratic norms and institutions. Social functioning and difficulty in relationships ensues with increased isolation as civic discourse and unity breakdown. Longterm, maltreated individuals often fall into substance abuse, poverty, and criminality. Likewise, citizen abuse is seen in institutional fragility and a decline in public health.

Understanding the parallels between child maltreatment and governmental abuse- neglect of its citizens offers a powerful lens through which to evaluate leadership and its impact on public well-being. Both forms of abuse and neglect–personal and political– can lead to trauma, disempowerment, injury/death, and long-term dysfunction. Just as children require nurturing environments to thrive, societies require accountable governance to maintain civic health.

In conclusion, the Trump administration’s perceived authoritarian abuses of power and neglect of public needs may contribute to a collective civic trauma that undermines democratic stability and societal trust. Addressing these threats requires both personal healing and systemic reform. Uniting in bi-partisan support for the things that matter most to all of us is an idea whose time has arrived. The American people are watching, questioning, resisting, protesting and waiting.