March becomes an important time for the president as they start to get the ball rolling on their agenda, whether it be to expand power through executive orders, sign legislation from congress, or begin negotiations and relationships in international relations.
In President Donald Trump’s second stint, the month of March has been a rocky one, filled with controversy. Below is an overview of some of the administration’s big events of the month, including his meeting with Prime Minister Zelensky of Ukraine, the beginning of the Department of Education teardown and the leak of war plans.
Trump and Zelensky’s Meeting
Russia and Ukraine have long had tensions, but relations went to another level during 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The two sides have since been at war.
Under the Biden administration, the U.S. aided its ally–Ukraine–in their fight against Russia.
The U.S. is obligated to help Ukraine partially because of their involvement in NATO, in which many countries in Western Europe belong to, naturally creating allyship between its members.
However, it also exists as an adversary to Russia, one of the few countries that could be considered a worldwide superpower and, historically, an enemy of the United States. Despite this history, Trump has continually played hard-ball with Ukraine while growing friendly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
This became more clear in what became a shouting match at the White House on Feb. 28 (which isn’t March, but it is close) in a meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky came hoping to affirm Ukraine’s relations with the U.S. and was instead met with hostility. Things went south from the start.
Trump deemed Zelensky’s attire as unfitting for the occasion. Zelensky, in solidarity for Ukrainian troops, refused to wear a suit. After getting argumentative himself, Trump also took issue with Zelensky’s response and tone. In what was slowly becoming a more tense conversation, Vance suggested Zelensky should negotiate with Putin himself, rather than relying on other nations. This obvious suggestion peeved Zelensky, as his past attempts at doing so were shut down or betrayed and broken by Russia. From there, Trump and Vance began to raise their voices to drown Zelensky out before Trump invoked the viral soundbite, “You’re playing with World War Three.”
After this, little was accomplished.
This meeting, if anything, highlights concerns about changing international relationships. Will Trump leave NATO as he has proposed in the past? Is Trump an ally of Russia? What will happen to Ukraine if the United States renounces or ends their support? International relations aside, a meeting of such hostility between two world leaders is undoubtedly a major part of the administration.
Trump and McMahon to Begin Teardown of the Department of Education
One of Trump’s big promises was to end the Department of Education (DOE), a federal sect of the government. The optics of this would be to turn the responsibility of education over to the states, allowing them to have greater control over the funding that goes to schooling and the curriculum.
On Thursday, March 20, President Trump signed an executive order to decree the beginning of this process.
This measure is controversial because it threatens to gut the public school system. Without the DOE, extreme changes to public education could be made. Considering the price tag attached to private education, a decrease in funding for public education could create a stark difference in the quality between the two. The disparity would widen between those who can afford private education and those who cannot.
Linda McMahon, the secretary of Education in Trump’s cabinet, is tasked with the dismantling of her own department. McMahon was formerly the CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and believes in a more privatized education system. Trump plans to give McMahon a new position once her duty is complete.
It is likely that the dismantling of the DOE accomplishes the goal of Republicans to shift toward a new curriculum, which is more easily accomplished in a private school setting. Outrage among some Republicans about school curriculum pushing liberal political agendas has motivated the party to prefer private schools, as private institutions are allowed to enforce religious teachings and disallow Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ+ literature.
However, Trump cannot constitutionally remove the DOE on his own. This would require the Senate to have 60 members voting to remove it. Republicans have 53 seats in the Senate, but would find it impossible to have any support from Democrats. This begs the question: Will Trump, through executive order and stretching his power, end the department himself?
Vance, Hegseth Involved in Military Security Breach
On Monday, March 24, a major security breach regarding a United States military operation in Yemen occurred. A journalist was accidentally invited to an unencrypted Signal group chat that included Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added by Michael Waltz, the national security advisor.
In the messages, Hegseth listed details about the bombings that targeted the Houthis military organization in Yemen, which happened shortly after the texts on March 15. According to Goldberg, classified information was exchanged within the group about the attacks. Additionally, the chat contained messages from Vance expressing concerns with the attacks disproportionately benefiting Europe, notably dissenting from President Trump’s belief.
Signal is a commercial app and, therefore, not cyber-secure. In the event where things were leaked, there could have been major consequences for the operation targeting a terrorist group. Many Democrats have called Hegseth to be fired for the conundrum. Hegseth already underwent a turbulent confirmation process for controversy surrounding infidelity and sexual assault allegations. While nothing is imminent, Hegseth’s seat could be warm.
In all, Donald Trump’s administration has stirred up some controversy this previous month. Many of these events are a work in progress and will most likely cause more events to unfold later.
