CST Dispatch #3

January to May CST Report Card

🕯️ Opening Prayer: For Discernment and Justice

God of justice and mercy,
You formed us in Your image and entrusted us with the care of one another.
As we examine the policies of our leaders,
Grant us clarity of mind, courage of heart, and charity in speech.

Help us to see beyond partisan lines,
To recognize Christ in the faces of the poor, the imprisoned, the immigrant, the unborn, and the earth itself.

May we be guided by Your Word and by the Church’s social teaching,
That we might speak truth with love,
And defend the dignity of every person, without exception.

In the name of Jesus, who lived among the marginalized and called the powerful to repentance,
Amen.

Catholic Social Teaching Isn’t a Partisan Tool — It’s a Moral Mirror

From January to May 2025, Donald Trump returned to the presidency with bold ambition and sweeping executive power. He promised to finish what he started. And in many ways, he did, dismantling federal institutions, intensifying anti-immigrant policies, and reshaping public life around loyalty rather than justice.

But if we’re serious about Catholic Social Teaching (CST), then we must hold every administration, Republican or Democrat, to the same set of moral standards rooted in the Gospel. CST isn’t about party loyalty. It’s about the dignity of the human person, the common good, the protection of creation, and the preferential option for the poor.

This report card evaluates Trump’s second-term agenda through eight core principles of CST, using the same framework we would apply to any leader. What emerges is a sobering picture of moral priorities out of sync with Catholic teaching, not just in rhetoric, but in concrete policy decisions that harm the vulnerable and benefit the powerful.

This is not about personal animus. It’s about fidelity to the Church’s social doctrine. And the record speaks for itself.

Dignity of Life: A Catholic Standard Trumpism Cannot Meet

CST begins with the foundational belief that every human life is sacred — not just in the womb, but in the world. It demands that we honor the dignity of all people: the immigrant, the prisoner, the poor, the unborn, and the earth itself. When judged against this high standard, Donald Trump's second-term record from January through May 2025 falls short across the board.

Yes, Trump maintained his anti-abortion rhetoric, but a consistent ethic of life was absent. He pardoned violent extremists, launched unauthorized airstrikes, and gutted the very agencies meant to protect the vulnerable. His immigration policies continued to treat human beings as bargaining chips. His economic cuts were framed as efficiency but felt as cruelty by those already at the margins.

Worst of all, his environmental actions, or more accurately, anti-environmental crusade — amount to a blatant disregard for the interconnected web of life that Pope Francis called us to protect in Laudato Si’. There is no pro-life position that justifies poisoning creation.

From racial justice rollbacks to worker displacement and war-making, Trump’s approach to governance reflects a transactional view of life: useful lives are protected; inconvenient ones are expendable. That is not Catholic. That is not moral. That is not consistent with the Gospel.

Grade for Dignity of Life: 0.83 GPA

Dignity of Work: Efficiency Isn’t the Same as Justice

CST teaches that work is not merely a transaction, it is participation in God’s creation. It must be dignified, justly compensated, and family-supportive. When measured by this standard, Trump’s second-term labor record reveals an administration more interested in slashing jobs than sustaining lives.

From January to May 2025, Trump laid off more than 275,000 federal workers and dissolved entire agencies in the name of “efficiency.” But who benefits when protections for miners, factory workers, and care providers are stripped away? Who wins when OSHA is gutted and labor rights are treated as bureaucratic red tape?

There was no raise in the minimum wage. No paid leave expansion. No regard for workers’ safety under extreme heat or environmental exposure. Just a relentless emphasis on productivity and loyalty, values better suited to an industrial assembly line than a theology of work rooted in human dignity.

Meanwhile, the administration abandoned global labor solidarity and left disabled workers behind. Support for families through employment policy was not even an afterthought. Trumpism’s economic model continues to sacrifice the worker on the altar of corporate freedom.

Grade for Dignity of Work: 1.00 GPA

Solidarity: A Gospel Virtue Rejected

Solidarity isn’t a buzzword. For Catholics, it’s a moral obligation, a commitment to walk with others, especially those who suffer. During his second-term return, Trump demonstrated little interest in building bridges between peoples, nations, or even classes. Instead, his policies deepened the divides.

In just the first five months of 2025, his administration dismantled racial equity frameworks, expanded deportations, and gutted protections for workers and the poor. His approach to international cooperation became more about asserting dominance than acting as a partner. And while some forms of religious expression were protected, others were sidelined, especially when they came from outside a narrow evangelical base.

This isn’t the kind of unity the Church calls us to. CST demands a love that crosses borders, classes, and creeds. Trump’s leadership chose loyalty over justice, division over dialogue, and power over partnership.

Grade for Solidarity: 0.88 GPA

Subsidiarity: Centralized Power in Disguise

Subsidiarity calls for decisions to be made as close to the people as possible, by families, communities, and local institutions, not distant bureaucracies. While Trump often invoked “states’ rights” or “freedom,” his administration centralized power wherever it benefited his political goals.

From overriding local sanctuary policies to stripping watchdogs from federal agencies, Trump’s second-term actions tell a clear story: subsidiarity was honored in rhetoric, violated in practice. Religious liberty was championed only for conservative allies. State budgets were strained by unfunded mandates. And federal agencies were dismantled without regard for the local communities who relied on them.

Even in areas where he did align with CST, like educational freedom, the administration failed to pair that freedom with justice. Vouchers expanded private school access for some while starving public systems that serve the most vulnerable.

Subsidiarity is about empowering the local for the sake of the common good. Trump’s approach often empowered the powerful instead.

Overall Grade for Subsidiarity: 0.75 GPA

Care for God’s Creation: A Gospel Mandate Abandoned

Pope Francis reminds us that the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one and the same. CST on the environment isn’t optional, it’s integral. But from January to May 2025, Trump’s policies made it clear: the earth was not his concern, and neither were the people most harmed by its destruction.

In just five months, the Trump administration unraveled nearly every thread of ecological responsibility. Climate rules were scrapped. Fossil fuel development surged. Renewable energy was ignored. The very agencies meant to safeguard God’s creation were hollowed out in the name of economic “freedom.”

And it wasn’t just the planet that suffered, it was the poor, the disabled, and communities of color breathing polluted air and drinking toxic water. Climate justice disappeared from federal policy. Laudato Si’ became a distant echo in a government unmoved by conversion or care.

To love God’s creation is to love each other. Trump’s second-term actions showed neither.

Overall Grade for Care for God’s Creation: 0.50 GPA

Rights and Responsibilities: A Civic Trust Undermined

CST insists that every human being has rights, and every society has responsibilities. This mutual moral duty forms the foundation of a just political order. But under Trump’s second-term governance, that trust was broken.

From slashing food assistance to gutting healthcare access, the administration treated basic human needs as political liabilities instead of moral obligations. It preached religious liberty, but only for its allies. It praised the Constitution, while pardoning those who attacked it. The right to life was narrowed to abortion politics while executions resumed and social safety nets were shredded.

This isn’t just political inconsistency. It’s a direct rejection of the Catholic vision of society: one rooted in the dignity of all, especially the vulnerable. Trump’s policies celebrated power over people, and loyalty over justice.

We are called to defend life and liberty for all. In this, the Trump administration failed.

Grade for Rights and Responsibilities: 0.88 GPA

Family, Community, and Participation: A Vision Shrunk by Division

CST affirms that family is the first society, and every human being is called to participate in shaping the world around them. But participation means more than slogans. It requires access, inclusion, and support. Trump’s second-term record shows a narrowing of that vision.

While conservatives cheered his school choice agenda, families received no help affording childcare, no new protections for housing or healthcare, and no relief from economic pressure. The “parental rights” rhetoric came without the structural supports parents actually need. Meanwhile, immigrants, disabled people, LGBTQ+ families, and the poor found themselves left out, or worse, targeted.

True participation builds a community of mutual belonging. Trump’s policies often did the opposite: dividing neighbor from neighbor, pitting groups against each other, and undermining civic trust. The result is a politics of resentment, not renewal.

We are called to be family to one another. The Church calls us to build community, not walls.

Grade for Family, Community, and Participation: 1.13 GPA

Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: The Gospel’s First Priority, Washington’s Last

“If you want peace, work for justice.” That call from CST rings out as a rebuke to the Trump administration’s second-term priorities. At the heart of CST is the preferential option for the poor, the moral obligation to place the most vulnerable at the center of public life. In Trump’s Washington, they were left out entirely.

Budgets were slashed. Housing programs vanished. Food assistance was threatened. Medicaid cuts loomed. And all the while, tax policy favored the rich and powerful. There was no relief for the working poor, no strategy to address homelessness, no vision for uplifting the marginalized.

Worse still, disability rights regressed. Elder care disappeared from the conversation. Criminal justice reforms stalled. Even basic needs like clean water, shelter, and education were treated as optional, not essential.

A government that ignores the poor has abandoned the Gospel. Trump’s policies treated poverty as either invisible or contemptible. That isn’t just a policy failure, it’s a moral one.

Grade for Option for the Poor and Vulnerable: 0.75 GPA

The Gospel Demands More Than the Culture War

Trumpism thrives on division. But CST calls us to unity, not uniformity, but the unity born of love for the poor, the worker, the refugee, the unborn, and the Earth. If we reduce our moral imagination to a single issue or a single party, we betray the very Gospel we claim to defend.

This report card is not just a critique of a presidency. It’s a call to conscience. To remember that our political witness must flow from sacramental solidarity, not from fear, not from power, and not from ideology.

The Church cannot be used as a mascot for nationalism, nor can it be reduced to a voting bloc. CST is not left or right. It is incarnational. It demands that we see Christ in the faces of those harmed by injustice, even when it’s politically inconvenient.

We are called to love the truth. And the truth is this: the Trump administration’s record is incompatible with the moral demands of Catholic faith.

🕯️Closing Prayer: For the Healing of Our Nation

Lord of all nations,
We place before You the wounds of our country:
The divisions, the injustices, the silencing of the poor,
And the forgetting of Your command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Stir in us the courage to work for peace rooted in justice,
The humility to listen before we speak,
And the faith to believe that another world is possible.

Let Your Spirit fall upon our leaders and our communities,
That policy might reflect mercy, and power be used in service.

We entrust this work to You,
And we go forth not as enemies of any person,
But as disciples of Christ, whose kingdom is not of this world — but breaks into it through love.

Amen.