Is there nothing in the federal government that Donald Trump doesn’t want to pull apart and destroy, behaving as if his election victory gives him unlimited authority?
Internally, he has stripped or threatened to strip the Justice Department and the FBI of professional staff members whom he believes are biased against him, with no evidence.
Gone are the 13 inspectors general who are tasked with providing an independent eye on the operations of government agencies, conducting audits and investigations to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, while also promoting efficiency and efficacy. Inspector generals perform exactly the function his new Department of Government Efficiency (a ‘department’ in name only) purports to do.
Sweeping pronouncements about ending the presence of undocumented immigrants have been undefined, causing consternation among authorities and fear among immigrants at all levels. Will churches and schools be raided along with companies?
It’s a shameful reflection of the United States, a country of immigrants, when Native Americans, the true ‘first peoples,’ are cautioned by tribal leadership to be sure to carry proof of identity.
Treasury Department payment systems – that dispense trillions in annual U.S. spending – are in the hands of his billionaire ally, the unelected Elon Musk.
The humanitarian aid that USAID conveys, mostly nutrition and health, is said to be 40% of worldwide aid. For decades it has reduced hunger and prevented or treated diseases for millions, in doing so showcasing the strength and generosity of the United States.
USAID is not all sacks of wheat and rice; it teaches more productive small scale farming and plans electrical grids. Employees on Monday showed up for work and were denied entrance to USAID headquarters – where the agency has operated for over two decades – with no support for employees and contractors.
Corruption and waste? No proof is being cited. Russia and China won’t hesitate to shout what the U.S. has done recklessly abandoning projects and each will claim that an alliance with their country will be stronger.
Clearly, Trump’s actions are not all about reducing the government’s size, or what he and his supporters see as ending woke culture. By eliminating the security coverage of a military general and foreign policy advisers – including Dr. Anthony Fauci – who have received credible foreign and domestic threats against their lives, he is showing cruel spite.
Gone is the director of the National Archives and Records Administration; that she arrived after the initiation of the effort to properly claim the federal documents he improperly and likely illegally - we may never know -- took to Mar-a-Lago made no difference.
And, gone early on was the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, told so at the event for military leadership to meet the newly inaugurated president. She was too focused on DEI, Trump said.
He fired the Biden-appointed board and installed himself as chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with observers saying that it’s a response to feeling slighted by arts advocates in his first term and that he deemed the exhibitions ‘woke.’
Terms such as “elected monarch” are being applied to Trump. He is certainly behaving like it, with Musk looking to have free hand as his administrator (when Musk is out of favor, and he will be eventually, without looking back he’ll return to space travel and battery-making, leaving layers of chaos behind him).
Federal courts have so far blunted a few of Trump’s initiatives, temporarily postponing USAID leadership firings and saying ‘no’ to Trump’s dictate to end birthright citizenship (never mind that it’s in the Constitution).
Meanwhile, no reaction from Republicans either in the House or in the Senate, including freshman Rep. Rep. Jeff Hurd. Are they really all comfortable with what is transpiring?
Trump is destroying government operations without their involvement, which by law the president cannot do, and he is refusing to spend funds Congress has authorized, also in the Constitution.
Democrats cannot end this. It will require Republicans to say ‘no,’ this is not what should be taking place in our country. What will the tipping point be and when will it occur? Until then, Americans are suffering.
