Rating Donald Trump’s second term so far: He’s rattling the cage and so many here in Pennsylvania couldn’t be happier
President Trump promised profound change. His former aide Steve Bannon said the first few weeks would be ‘days of thunder’.
It’s been all of that and more.
Domestically and globally Donald Trump has proudly upturned norms.
One key question for me these past few weeks has been: if much of the world (and liberal America) has been buffeted and bewildered by Donald Trump, what do those who chose him back in November think, nearly 50 days in?
I’ve been back to Pennsylvania, a place I have spent plenty of time over the past few years. It’s crucial in every election and was particularly so last November.
The state is sort of a microcosm for the country. To the east and west are the urban Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
In between are the rural Republican heartlands. And dotted throughout are the hinterlands – smaller towns where there is more of a mix of voters but still with a general lean towards the Republicans or, more specifically, to Trump.
Gettysburg and Waynesboro both voted broadly two-thirds for Trump and one-third for Kamala Harris back in November.
On the edge of Gettysburg, a bleak rocky outcrop marks the location of the battle which changed the course of the civil war. The threads which stitch America run through this place.
A few hundred metres away is the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address.
It was 1863 and America’s 16th president marked the end of the battle with a reminder to a country divided by a civil war that it was a nation founded years earlier on the principles of liberty and equality.
Lincoln was America’s most consequential president, until now, maybe.
In the town’s Lincoln Square, a statue of the 16th president stands tall. My focus was the new White House occupant.
“10!” It was the first of many ‘tens’ on my Trump scorecard.
“Oh he’s doing great…Yeah he’s doing real great,” one man said.
I asked what, in particular, he was happy with. “The money he’s making me.” The theme was the same with the next person.
“Trying to pass no tax on social security for one, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime – help out the workers, help out the retirees, that’s very important to me,” Mike said.
My third conversation was with a couple. I suggested to them that the federal firings had felt quite chaotic; a sledgehammer approach.
“No. I think they’re using a scalpel. They’re finding so much. It looks bad,” the man said.
“We had too many people that were in those jobs, they weren’t doing anything,” his wife added.
A couple say that Donald Trump has been a ‘scalpel’ – not a ‘sledgehammer’
“He’s upsetting Europe as well…” I said in my next conversation. “That’s not good, is it? We’re supposed to be friends.” I suggested with a smile.
“Yeah, well we need Europe to step up too,” the man replied.
“Zelenskyy was here for a pay cheque and got a reality check,” another said, referring to the Oval Office showdown.
“I believe he wants to keep this war going, because as soon as this war is over, he’s going to be voted out,” he said.
“We’re an ocean apart. We’re doing him a big favour by supporting him.”
So much of what I heard was parroting President Trump almost word for word.
“You know, we gave him, what, $300bn? Where did that money go?”
There was no point in telling him that the true American contribution was about half that, and that it is all fully and publicly accounted for.
Lunch was at Chubby’s, a local pizza joint where I met Tom Jaskulski, a retired federal worker, now a handyman.
“He campaigned on all these policies, and he’s fulfilling them,” Tom told me. “It seems like the world’s waking up when Donald Trump came in office.
“A lot of things are happening worldwide, not just in this country.”
‘He’s rattling the hornet’s nest,’ Tom Jaskulski says
Tom’s score? “10! Not because I’m wearing his hat, but a 10 because he’s doing what he says he’s going to do.
“You know, he’s rattling the hornet’s nest.”
Down the road, at the Yankee Doodle Pet Spa, Tina and her 22-year-old apprentice Molly had no regrets and were baffled that anyone could think they would.
“He’s doing what he said he was going to do and I am quite happy with him right now,” Tina said.
‘I don’t think (Ukrainians) deserve our money,’ Tina says
Our conversation turned to Ukraine. I wanted to know her thoughts on President Trump’s abruptly shifting position and near-abandonment of Kyiv.
“It’s not our war. We have enough people in this country suffering, that’s how I feel about it. I don’t think they deserve our money,” Tina said, quoting the president’s exaggerated figures for how much America had spent in Ukraine.
But then our conversation cut to the core of where America is right now: siloed worlds.
Read more:
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‘Trump bump’ turns to a Trump slump
We were discussing Elon Musk and his efforts to cut government bureaucracy.
“The social security, blowing that open with all of the people that are over 124 still getting social security,” Molly said of Musk’s claim that he had discovered social security was being paid to dead people.
“160 years old, I heard…” said Tina.
“Yeah, that’s insane,” Molly said.
I interrupted: “You know that’s been debunked? That wasn’t true. I’m worried that people are believing things that actually aren’t true. That the Trump administration is telling you stuff that is not true. What do you think?”
“I think it’s both ways,” Molly said, “I think both sides put out fake news and fake propaganda for each other.”
It was clear she didn’t know who to believe. She’d lost all trust in the legacy media. She and Tina had been drawn to social media and they’d concluded President Trump was trustworthy.
Back in Lincoln Square, a chance meeting exposed the other side of all this – deep anxiety.
“I’m a trans person so a lot of his policies have been impacting transgender people and that is just, it’s a scary time to live in,” 22-year-old Em told me.
Em said ‘there’s a lot of hatred in the world right now’
“There’s a lot of hatred in the world right now, especially at so many groups of people. I mean, it’s really… yeah…” Em said before trailing off, face filled with anxiety and emotion.
By nightfall my journey of conversations had taken me to the quiz night at a bar and brewery in Waynesboro.
“I’ve never been more embarrassed to be American…” one woman called Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline has ‘never been more embarrassed to be American,’ and Andrew says everyone is in their ‘own echo chambers’
Her quiz night partner, Andrew, chipped in. “I think it’s the access to information. I think we don’t go out and talk to each other.
“I think we’re on the internet all day. A lot of people are just on the internet and they’re getting news sources from their own echo chambers.”
“Things have been going downhill for a long time,” another man called Marco, at the next door table, said.
“I’m not saying Trump’s right about everything, but you know what? At least he’s trying, he’s doing something different. And I agree with what he’s doing.”
Marco says Donald Trump is ‘doing something different’
This wave of change has been profound. But to assume that those who chose this change – who chose Donald Trump – would have any regrets would be to fundamentally misunderstand America today.
The profound sentiment among everyone we spoke to who voted for him is that he is putting America first with a tangibility that they have never felt before.
It may turn out to be an illusion. But they feel no sense of that at the moment.
He is rattling the cage and so many here couldn’t be happier.
The US secretary of state has hailed a “tremendous amount of progress” on peace talks after the US and Ukraine delegations met in Geneva – but said that negotiators would “need more time”.
Marco Rubio said the meetings in Switzerland on Sunday have been “the most productive and meaningful” of the peace process so far.
He said the US was making “some changes” to the peace plan, seemingly based on Ukrainian suggestions, “in the hopes of further narrowing the differences and getting closer to something that both Ukraine and obviously the United States are very comfortable with”.
Mr Rubio struck an optimistic tone talking to the media after discussions but was light on the details, saying there was still work to be done.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Geneva after peace talks with Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
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Analysis: Rubio strikes an optimistic tone – but is light on detail
“I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain,” Mr Rubio said.
He also stressed: “We just need more time than what we have today. I honestly believe we’ll get there.”
Sky News’ defence analyst Michael Clarke said on the initial US-Russian 28-point peace plan that it was Donald Trump against the world, with maybe only Moscow on his side.
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Is Trump’s plan a ‘capitulation document’?
Mr Rubio praised the Ukrainian attitude towards the talks and said Mr Trump was “quite pleased” after he previously said in a social media post that Ukraine’s leaders had expressed “ZERO GRATITUDE” for US efforts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Sunday that there are signs that “President Trump’s team hears us”.
In a news release on Sunday evening, the White House said the day “marked a significant step forward”.
“Ukrainian representatives stated that, based on the revisions and clarifications presented today, they believe the current draft reflects their national interests and provides credible and enforceable mechanisms to safeguard Ukraine’s security in both the near and long term,” it claimed.
Despite diplomatic progress in Geneva the finish line remains a long way off
We’ve witnessed a day of determined and decidedly frantic diplomacy in this well-heeled city.
Camera crews were perched on street corners and long convoys of black vehicles swept down Geneva’s throughfares as the Ukrainians worked hard to keep the Americans on side.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not want to go into details at a press “gaggle” held at the US Mission this evening, but he seemed to think they had made more progress in the last 96 hours than the previous 10 months combined.
The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy also seemed satisfied enough, posting on Telegram that there were “signals President Trump’s team is hearing us” after a day of “numerous meetings and negotiations”.
That said, we are a long way from the finish line here – something Rubio acknowledged when he said that any proposal agreed here would have to be handed over to the Russians.
At that point, negotiations to stop the war would surely get tougher.
President Putin has shown little or no inclination to stop the conflict thus far.
This, then, is the most important reason the Ukrainians seem determined to keep the Americans on side.
European leaders have presented a counter proposal to the widely criticised US-Russian peace plan, with suggestions including a cap on Ukraine’s peacetime army and readmitting Moscow into the G8.
This will only take place if the plan is agreed to by the US, Russia and Ukraine, and the G7 signs off on the move. Russia was expelled after annexing Crimea in 2014.
The counter proposal also includes US guarantees to Ukraine that mirror NATO’s Article 5 – the idea that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all”.
Read more:
Who actually wrote US-Russian peace plan for Ukraine?
In full: Europe’s 28-point counter proposal to US-Russia plan
The initial peace plan was worked up by the White House and Kremlin without Ukraine’s involvement, and it acquiesces to many of Russia’s previous demands.
It covers a range of issues – from territorial concessions to reconstruction programmes, the future Ukrainian relationship with NATO and the EU, and educational reforms in both Ukraine and Russia.
US and Ukrainian officials are set to meet again today to continue work on the proposal.
It has also been reported that President Zelenskyy could travel to the US as early as this week to discuss the most sensitive aspects of the plan with President Trump.
Questions are being raised about the Russia-Ukraine peace plan, after US politicians suggested the proposal’s 28 points did not originate from Donald Trump’s administration but were put forward by Moscow.
Senators, critical of the US president’s approach to Ukraine, said they spoke with the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who told them the plan is a “wish list” from the Russians and not a proposal offering Washington’s positions.
Ukraine war latest: Washington denies backing ‘Moscow wish list’
The US state department has called that account “blatantly false”, with Mr Rubio saying that the senators were mistaken and that Washington was responsible for the proposals.
The 28-point plan has surprised many for being so favourable to Moscow.
Explained: Trump’s peace plan in full
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How Ukraine peace plan came about
Republican senator Mike Rounds is among those who have claimed the plan was not drafted by Washington.
“This administration was not responsible for this release in its current form,” he said at a security conference in Canada. “They want to utilise it as a starting point.”
Mr Rounds added: “It looked more like it was written in Russian to begin with.”
Independent senator Angus King said Mr Rubio told them the plan “was not the administration’s plan” but a “essentially the wish list of the Russians”.
The senators said they spoke to Mr Rubio after he contacted them while on his way to Geneva for talks on the plan.
According to the Reuters news agency, some US officials also said the plan contains material that the US secretary of state has previously rejected and neither he, nor anyone in the state department, was aware of the plan before it was announced.
These latest claims have added to growing confusion over who was involved in drawing up the 28 points.
European leader asks: ‘Who authored the plan?’
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has raised concerns about its origins. On Sunday, he wrote on X: “It would be good to know for sure who is the author of the plan and where was it created.”
In a post on X, Mr Rubio insisted that “the peace proposal was authored by the US… but it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine”.
A former adviser to Vladimir Putin had denied that Russia was behind the peace plan. Sergei Markov told Sky News “it is American” and the points were a “very good basis for diplomatic negotiation”.
Mr Markov insisted there were “some positive moods in Russia about it” but also accused Europe and Ukraine of wanting to continue the war, despite Russia unilaterally launching and pursuing a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Former Putin advisor challenged over 28-point peace plan
Read more from Sky News:
Peace plan scrutinised at G20
Ukraine issued with ‘surrender ultimatum’
Ukraine and Europe cannot reject plan
American special envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met Kirill Dmitriev in Miami at the end of October to work on the proposals, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Mr Dmitriev, who is a close ally of the Russian president, was blacklisted by the US government in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kirill Dmitriev and special envoy Steve Witkoff in St Petersburg in April 2025. Pic: Kremlin Pool Photo/AP
Trump rows back on demands
The US president initially demanded that Ukraine accept the peace plan by Thursday. But he has since rowed back from that position, instead saying the proposal was not his final offer.
The plan currently on the table calls for major concessions by Kyiv, including ceding territory to Russia, pledging not to join NATO and abandoning certain weaponry.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not rejected the proposals outright, but said he would not betray Ukraine’s interests. Meanwhile, Mr Putin has described the plan as the basis of a resolution to the conflict.
Separately, Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been equally dismissive of the proposals.
“This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly sceptical it will achieve peace,” he said.
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