Abstract

This article researches how Donald Trump’s presidency operated through networks of power – political appointees, judges, billionaires, and institutional hollowing – to shape policy and public life. Drawing on cases – immigration raids, cuts to NOAA/FEMA staffing, air‑traffic controller reductions, and connections between elite networks and Jeffrey Epstein – the study argues that Trump’s policies and appointments eroded civil rights, prioritised private wealth, and produced institutional failures with high human costs. It interrogates the balance between personal agency and hidden “puppeteers,” and calls for further investigation into elite planning documents and institutional dismantling to assess threats to democratic resilience.