'Sheer malevolence': Analyst says Trump's first weeks 'worse than you could have imagined'

Democrats tried to work with President Donald Trump at the start of his second term, but the spirit of "sheer malevolence" by Trump and Elon Musk has made moving forward all but impossible, argued an opinion writer for MSNBC.

Journalist Paul Waldman wrote that initially, "some Democrats decided to extend a hand of bipartisanship." They included progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) who were both spurred on by the idea of cutting government waste through Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Some progressives criticized Democrats for thinking they could amicably work side-by-side with the administration.

"But it turned out that even the most skeptical progressives who torched Democrats online underestimated the sheer malevolence of both Trump and Musk," Walman wrote. "In just two weeks, the billionaire duo has frozen government payments, scapegoated minorities for an air crash, purged officials deemed insufficiently loyal, seized the government's payment system and potentially shut down congressionally created agencies. Wherever you look, it's worse than you could have imagined."

ALSO READ: 'Driven to self-loathing': Inside the extremist website believed to 'groom' teen attackers

He continued, "Trump and Musk are in a hurry to destroy everything they can get their hands on...They can’t be reasoned with. And they absolutely will not stop until they lay waste to our government as we have known it. Anyone who thought otherwise ought to understand by now."

Even so, Trump has "the highest favorability rating he's ever had," with "48.9 percent of respondents viewing him favorably and 47.7 percent holding an unfavorable opinion," according to a Real Clear Politics poll.

"I'm not necessarily surprised by Trump's numbers," Andrew David, senior lecturer at Boston University, told Newsweek: "These are impressive for him personally for sure. But this is the point in his administration when he should have numbers along these lines. Considering the scope of his November victory, it would be shocking if there was a major regress in his support."

David added, "That said, while these are great numbers for Trump, they're still low by almost any measure of the presidency. In fact, the only person who started with lower numbers was...Donald Trump [in 2016]."

Read the MSNBC opinion piece here.