To many of President Donald Trump's hardcore MAGA supporters, his second presidency is bringing about a variety of reforms at a rapid pace — from downsizing federal government agencies to carrying out mass deportations. But Trump's opponents on both the left and the right counter that his policies are inflicting considerable damage on the United States in a wide variety of areas, including the economy, health care, civil liberties, and national security. One of those opponents is New York Times columnist Thomas Edsall. In his September 9 column, Edsall draws a distinction between "damage" that is permanent and "damage" that can be fixed. READ MORE: 'Come over here weenie': Video shows GOP congressman taunting protester before altercation "As President Trump continues his march through America's democratic institutions," Edsall warns, "trampling constitutional restraints and silencing dissent, one of the most pressing questions is: What damage is beyond repair, and what can still be undone?" To answer that question, Edsall interviewed political experts ranging from New York University law professor Sam Issacharoff to the Brookings Institution's William Galston. Issacharoff told Edsall, "The dismissal of career experts, the dismantling of long horizon science projects are examples of what cannot be recreated. What happens if tensions resurface between North and South Korea or between India and Pakistan? Who guides policy if the state and defense departments lose their experts? This is something where the next administration cannot simply reopen the spigot and recreate. Expertise is long to create and fast to destroy." Galston believes that Trump has inflicted "irreparable" damage on everything from international relations to science. READ MORE: This could end the galling stupidity that keeps Trump in power "Most of what's irreparable has occurred in programs and policies that affect our relations with the rest of the world," Galston told Edsall. "Trump has upended the system of multilateral trade relations that the United States created and sustained after World War II, and there's no going back. Most serious of all, Trump has destroyed the trust the United States built up over decades as the guarantor of European security, of support for democracy and human rights, and provider of global public goods such as freedom of the seas…. There has been some irreparable damage on the home front as well." Galston continued, "The most serious, in my judgment — the destruction of America's reputation as the best place in the world for the most promising scientists and innovators of various kinds to conduct research. The evisceration of funding for basic research will be hard to reverse without restoring some bipartisan agreement about the importance of knowledge and expertise. I'm not holding my breath." Trump insists that his administration's downsizing of federal government agencies is targeting "waste, fraud and abuse," but Max Stier — chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service — counters that Trump's policies are depriving the federal government of a considerable amount of expertise. The federal government, Stier noted, has lost "200,000 civil servants with an expected 100,000 more by end of year." Stier told Edsall, "We have been deprived of both the most experienced public servants and the next generation we so desperately need. The harm to our nation is incalculable…. At least as damaging, they have made clear through mass firings that federal employees risk losing their jobs for speaking truth and for choosing the law or constitution over an order from a political appointee." According to Edsall, Brookings' Robert E. Litman was even more "pessimistic" than the other interviewees. Litman told Edsall, "By the end of Trump's term…. even if he dies and (Vice President JD) Vance takes over, there will be nothing left of the America we knew four years before. All institutions, norms, government — you name it, all of it gone. The political-societal equivalent of a neutron bomb. It will take far more than the next four years, if Democrats get a chance, to rebuild it." READ MORE: 'Disturbing': Top Dem says new Trump-Epstein photo 'more incriminating' than birthday book Thomas Edsall's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).