Rebuilding Trust: What the Next U.S. President Must Do to Restore Government Integrity

Assuming there is no constitutional amendment or coup, Donald Trump’s presidency will end at noon on Jan. 20, 2029. With nearly three years until the next presidential election, attention has shifted from who will lead the country to how that person will govern.

Since launching his 2016 campaign, President Trump has repeatedly upended long-standing norms: he refused to disclose his tax returns, politicized the Department of Justice, profited from official contacts with foreign governments, cast doubt on the integrity of elections and the competence of the military and intelligence communities, dismissed inspectors general and other career civil servants, and deployed an unprecedented volume of falsehoods across his first and second terms.

If a Republican successor—whether Vice President J.D. Vance, former Secretary of State Marco Rubio, or Donald Trump Jr.—takes office, much of that norm-breaking could persist. They could reason that the practices which benefited Trump helped elect them as his heir, creating little incentive to change the operational habits of the presidency even if policy priorities differ.

A Democratic successor would face hard choices of their own. Should they devote scarce political capital to repairing the institutional damage Trump has wrought? Doing so would likely require codifying customs into law: mandatory disclosure of candidate tax returns, stronger statutory protections for inspectors general and the independence of the Federal Reserve, and enforceable ethics rules that cover the president and, arguably, other high officials.

Even with ambitious, post-Watergate-style reforms, restoring pre-Trump norms will be difficult. The Trump era exposed broad areas of executive action that a determined president can bend around statutory limits. Examples cited during this period include agency dismantling, politically driven layoffs, unilateral decisions to flout laws such as a proposed TikTok restriction, and military actions taken with contested justifications—illustrating how executive initiative can frustrate congressional intent.

Trump’s actions also eroded trust domestically and abroad. Nonpartisan career officials who supply data relied upon by policymakers and industry were removed and agencies have been starved of resources. Rebuilding expertise and restoring the reputations for accuracy and impartiality at institutions such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics will take time—and may never fully erase the damage.

Abroad, allies who once counted on steady U.S. partnership may be skeptical that Washington will remain reliable. Even if they welcome a successor committed to norms and the rule of law, they will reasonably ask whether that reliability will endure beyond a single administration.

Because Trump’s legacy affects perceptions of government beyond his own term, rebuilding public faith in American institutions should be a central task for the next president. This work will require legislation where appropriate, but also a sustained commitment to institutional norms, the rule of law, and professional civil service independence.

Presidents are powerful but constrained by Congress, the courts and the bureaucracy—and these constraints often tempt leaders to find ways around them. The next president must resist those temptations and model a culture of integrity: appoint qualified, nonpartisan agency leaders, defend the independence of inspectors general and statistical agencies, support enforceable ethics rules, and prioritize transparent decision-making.

Restoring trust will not be quick or easy. But without a credible, long-term commitment to good governance, the republic will be further weakened. A successor who makes rebuilding institutional integrity their highest priority will help stabilize domestic governance and reassure international partners.

About the author: Richard S. Grossman is the Andrews Professor of Economics at Wesleyan University and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science. He is the author of WRONG: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them.