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The Index tracks erosion — of trust, of norms, of the quiet assumptions that hold institutions together. No single figure explains a decade of decline. But when a president’s own record intersects with nearly every metric we track — legal accountability, institutional independence, public trust — it belongs in the file. This is not commentary on Donald Trump the man. It is a record of what happened, sourced, across two nonconsecutive terms in office.
A First Term Defined by Two Impeachments
Trump is one of only three U.S. presidents ever impeached by the House, and the only one impeached twice. The first, in December 2019, centered on a call in which he pressed Ukraine’s president to investigate a political rival — a matter the House framed as abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The second, in January 2021, followed the January 6th Capitol attack and made him the only president impeached in the final days of a term. The Senate acquitted him both times — impeachment requires a two-thirds vote to convict, and neither reached that bar — but the frequency itself is a record no other president shares.
The First Sitting or Former President Convicted of a Felony
In May 2024, a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records tied to a $420,000 hush-money payment scheme. It made him the first U.S. president, sitting or former, convicted of a crime. When he was finally sentenced in January 2025, days before his second inauguration, the judge issued an unconditional discharge — a conviction on the books, with no fine and no jail time. The case remains under appeal.
Day One: Clemency for the Capitol Attack
Hours into his second term, Trump granted clemency to nearly all of the roughly 1,500 people charged in connection with January 6th — including, per NPR’s review of court records, defendants convicted of violent assaults on police officers, and others with unrelated convictions for rape and domestic violence who received pardons as part of the same sweep. Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers leader serving 18 years for seditious conspiracy, had his sentence commuted. Trump also ordered the Justice Department to drop all remaining January 6th indictments.
Governing by Executive Order — and Losing in Court
By April 2026, Trump had signed 254 executive orders in fourteen months — a pace far exceeding any modern predecessor. Several of the most consequential have not survived judicial review. His order attempting to end birthright citizenship drew immediate multi-state litigation and was later blocked. The administration also moved directly against law firms that had represented his political opponents or investigated him, an escalation tracked in detail by legal researchers as without recent precedent for a sitting administration.
National Guard Troops in American Cities — Blocked by the Supreme Court
Over the objections of Democratic governors and mayors, the administration federalized and deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Memphis. Illinois and Chicago sued; a federal judge blocked the Chicago deployment, and in December 2025 the Supreme Court left that block in place, rejecting the administration’s bid to override it. It marked one of the clearest judicial rebukes of the president’s use of military authority against sitting state governments in modern history.
The Tariff Bill Comes Due
Trump’s tariff regime raised $187 billion more in federal revenue in 2025 than in 2024 — but businesses that initially absorbed most of that cost are passing more of it to consumers. Morningstar projects inflation rising to 2.7% in 2026 on tariff pass-through, with the average effective tariff rate hitting its highest level since 1969 and household costs estimated near $900–$1,000 a year.
What This Means for the Index
None of this requires a label. Two impeachments, a felony conviction, a mass clemency that swept up violent offenders alongside political allies, a Supreme Court rebuke over domestic military deployment, and a trade policy raising costs on the households the Index exists to track — these are documented, sourced, and on the record regardless of party. Trump was elected twice by the constitutional process, and his supporters would point to court wins, judicial appointments, and economic metrics he’d count as successes; that argument deserves a fair hearing elsewhere. But an Index built to measure institutional erosion cannot look away from a presidency that has generated this much friction with the courts, the Justice Department’s own independence, and the norm that political opponents don’t get legally targeted by the state. Donald Trump’s Moral Decay is the story. We’ll keep tracking it as it descends into madness.
Monday August 17th 2026
— David, The Moral Decay Index