'Move fast and break things': Trump's first 100 days

The first 100 days of Donald Trump's second presidency have seen an unprecedented level of chaos with global repercussions, writes Dr Norm Sanders.

WHATEVER HAPPENS from here on in, the world will never be the same. From Social Security to the Federal Aviation Administration, the DOGE team has run a bulldozer through the U.S. Government and the wreckage will be smouldering for a long time. The damage was done by tech nerd Elon Musk, using a concept developed by another nerdy Trump oligarch, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook (now Meta).

“Move fast and break things” (MFABT) is a philosophy advocating for rapid innovation and experimentation, even if it means making mistakes along the way. It's often associated with tech companies, where the speed of development and iteration is seen as crucial to staying ahead of the competition.

In essence, the idea is that:

Speed is prioritised: Companies should move quickly to get products and services into the market and gather user feedback.
Mistakes are accepted: The focus is on learning from errors and improving, rather than being paralysed by the fear of failure.
Continuous improvement: The mantra encourages a mindset of constant iteration and adaptation.

Zuckerberg is credited with popularising this philosophy in a 2012 letter to investors, according to a report in LeadDev.

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Zuckerberg argued:

“Moving fast enables us to build more things and learn faster.”

According to the article in LeadDev, MFABT is seen as a way to quickly develop and iterate on new products and features. The philosophy encourages companies to challenge the status quo and disrupt existing industries.

It's a way to learn from mistakes and quickly adapt to changing market conditions. But some argue that the focus on speed can lead to neglecting safety and ethical considerations.

Rapid innovation can also lead to unintended negative consequences for users or society with some critics arguing that the focus on metrics and growth can overshadow other important values.

In conclusion, MFABT is a philosophy that has been influential in the tech industry, but it's not without its potential drawbacks. It's a way of thinking that emphasises speed, experimentation and continuous improvement, but it also requires careful consideration of the potential risks and consequences.

I started the journalistic phase of my life 50 years ago when I exiled myself from Richard (“I am not a crook”) Nixon’s America during the Viet Nam war. My first job in Australia was as a reporter for ABC Television’s current affairs show, This Day Tonight. Like all journalists, we used typewriters. (A machine with a keyboard similar to a computer, but connected mechanically to keys which printed directly on the paper without a separate printer.)

Information was gathered either through interviews or by library research using books or articles. Now, we have a rapidly expanding technology. Generative AI is just a glorified Google, isn’t it?

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Anyway, Trump World has totally embraced the MFABT philosophy along with another concept, introduced by Steve Bannon: “Flood the zone with shit.”

In U.S. football, “flooding the zone” refers to an offensive strategy where a team concentrates its pass receivers on one side of the field, forcing the defence to overcommit to that side and potentially creating weaknesses elsewhere.

Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” refers to his tactic of overwhelming the media and opposition with an avalanche of information, misinformation, and/or action — in other words, shit. Combine this with MFABT and you have Trump World.

There is a glaring omission in MFABT thinking: empathy. Nowhere is there any concern for the impact of their glittering, profitable technology on humans.

Martha Stout wrote in The Sociopath Next Door:

Imagine – if you can – not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken... You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences, will most likely remain undiscovered. How will you live your life? What will you do with your huge and secret advantage?

Well, for starters, how about being President of the United States, or maybe a tech oligarch or – why not – the richest man in the world?

MFABT is now affecting everyone on Earth and even the Earth itself. Climate change is a perfect example. Trump has cancelled renewable energy programs and lifted restrictions on oil and gas drilling.

The tariff chaos is also classic MFABT, which encourages market disruption through challenging the status quo and destroying established commercial and governmental institutions.

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One of the best examples of the impact of MFABT is the DOGE induced crippling of the U.S. Social Security System. The DOGE kids moved fast and broke it to the point where people are going hungry. But, of course, that isn’t a problem in MFABT thinking.

Actually, DOGE is emerging as something more than MFABT, horrific as that is. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, isn’t stupid. He may have no moral compass, but he knows how to make money — a lot of money. How about a scheme to get a whole bunch of sensitive information about Musk's competitors camouflaged as a drive for government efficiency?

According to a National Labor Relations Board whistleblower, this is exactly what happened.

Of course, Trump’s disastrous actions don’t go unnoticed in the rest of the world, including Australia.

The New York Times cited Trump’s tariff war as a key factor in the way Aussies had voted in the 2025 Federal Election:

‘A superpower loomed large as Australians headed to the polls. It wielded trade barriers as a means of political coercion, imperilling Australia’s export-dependent economy. Conservative Peter Dutton, following a Trumpian pathway, turned out to be a strategic blunder.’

And outgoing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s downfall mirrors Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s defeat in Canada’s election on 28 April. In January, Canada’s incumbent centre-left Liberals were heading for defeat to the Conservatives. But then, Trump caused a national uproar with his aggressive tariffs and his call for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state. Mark Carney romped in.

Things are so bad in the U.S. that I wondered about the possibility of a military coup. The U.S. Constitution actually provides for such an action.

I tried the old-fashioned technique of asking a human, in this case, a friend who is a retired high-ranking Australian military officer.

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Here are his views:

Many U.S. military officers I have worked with have been well educated people, with strong professionalism and knowledge of civics. I think many have a very strong sense of the Constitutional foundations of their oaths, their loyalty to defend the Constitution and not an individual president — and most of all, a strong sense of what constitutes a Lawful versus Unlawful order. So those would cause most to seek real legal clarity about what is asked of them.

That said, many junior U.S. military folks are poorly educated, wanting to be told what to think. More junior ranks tend to be nore conservative, less questioning. U.S. Military folks tend to be more GOP than DEM, but loyal to the Nation. Many go to great lengths to stress nonpartisanship.

Quite a few senior U.S. military officers have stood up to Trump and [Secretary of Defence, Peter] Hegseth, at their cost. Trump plus Hegseth, Vance, Bannon, Miller et al have ZERO respect for the separation of powers, unconstitutional policies and directives. Deliberate diabolical destructive sabotage. As for respect for Courts and Judiciary, Sierra Foxtrot Alpha. (Translaton: Sweet Fuck All.) As for media manipulation and propaganda, off the rails.

So the real principled respected U.S. military leaders continue to emphasise the need for lawful orders, loyalty to U.S. Constitution rather than following the henna-hued human haemorrhoid!

If push comes to shove, many will not go quietly, will refuse unlawful orders, will resign, will rail and rally to gain community support for principles and will seek legal protections. I fear there will need to be MASSIVE community protests, civil disobedience, perhaps even bloodshed on the streets.

I also fear that some nutjob will take out Trump with extreme prejudice, make him a martyr, trigger unrest leading to constitutional crisis and then civil war. Everything Trump is doing now in his unhinged narcissistic disaster behaviour paints a bigger and bigger bullseye on his body. But I would much prefer the U.S. people consigned him to the dumpster of history by democratic means and soon.

Sadly, it looks like the cavalry won’t be riding over the horizon any time soon to save us from the ongoing U.S. trainwreck. Meanwhile, the insanity continues.

John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, called working in the Trump White House “like living inside a pinball machine”.

Nothing escapes the all-seeing attention of the White House, which recently sent out an official statement announcing cuts to Public Radio:

‘ENDING TAXPAYER SUBSIDISATION OF BIASED MEDIA: Today, President Donald J Trump signed an Executive Order ending the taxpayer subsidisation of National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).’

The White House made many complaints of left-wing bias, including Public Radio’s show Sesame Street, when Big Bird and friends partnered with CNN for a town hall. They offended Trump by ’presenting children with a one-sided narrative to “address racism” amid the Black Lives Matter riots’.

Nothing and no one in America is safe if Trump considers Sesame Street dangerous.

The systematic destruction of American democracy is relentless and determined. The future is bleak. Trump and his MFABT team have already broken so much stuff that there isn’t enough Super Glue in all the world to mend it.