Trump has rapidly implemented the plan to defund many government services, end efforts to deal with climate change and to emphasize drilling and mining
By Michael O’Looney
Let’s not kid ourselves about what Trump is doing under the guise of making America great. Again. He has issued so many executive orders, nearly all of them bypassing congressional approval, that many of us are thinking they might not be all that bad. Deporting illegal migrant criminals, legally of course. Nothing wrong with that. Trimming government spending. About time. Letting China and Canada turn us into a debtor nation. Enough is enough.
Many of these actions the chief executive has usurped from the purview of Congress. But . . . Congress has become dysfunctional, right?
We are constantly being blindsided by the flak being flung at us as we watch the evening news. Upon first viewing, some of it may look pretty good. But let’s look at what Trump, in alignment with the goals of Project 25, has undertaken to do or undo in the past three months.
To date, DOGE has fired, forced out, or laid off 279,445 federal employees, all in its efforts to reduce government spending. Trump has gutted the Department of Veteran Affairs, threatened to end Medicaid, defunded NPR, the Voice of America and USAID. The Department of Education is on the cutting block; he has suspended funding for research in American universities and the Centers for Disease Control. Diversity, equity and inclusion guidelines have been terminated and the regulators who investigate illegal financial practices have been dismissed.
Still denying climate change
Our climate-change-denier-in-chief is now trying to block the enforcement of state laws to reduce carbon emissions and has defunded climate control research. His argument is that global warming, not being a threat, is no longer in alignment with the administration’s current policy, which is to open up previously protected public lands to drilling and mining, again arguing it will reduce the national debt.
So we must ask ourselves, are we missing the big picture behind all these cutbacks, firings and deconstruction in the name of government downsizing?
When he was campaigning, Trump tried to disassociate himself from Project 25, claiming he had nothing to do with it, that some of its ideas were “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” But he has been complicit in implementing Project 25’s playbook to the letter.
Less we forget, Project 25 is the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation, which seeks to downsize government, reform immigration, cut back social welfare programs, eliminate the Department of Education, remove DEI guidelines, and reverse climate control policies. This is exactly what Trump has done. We should not credit him with being a revolutionary thinker whose plan was to deconstruct the federal government. He is simply a tool of right-wing billionaires who have enabled their favorite son with the cart blanche power to ‘conservatize’ America. Project 25 seeks to keep a Republican in office for perpetuity.
A lawless autocrat
Project 25 architects now have their man in place to bring about a new America where the two-party system is viewed as an anachronism. Our government, which will be subservient to the financially elite, has almost insidiously been crippled, our democracy transformed by a lawless autocrat into a dictatorship that ignores all constitutional restraints.
Trump disrespects our political traditions. He gives further proof of that with is his repeated ramblings about running for a third term. (“There are methods which you can do it.”) Fact is, there’s now a resolution before Congress for an amendment that would allow Trump to run for a third term.
In the midterms ahead, Trump could discount the outcome of the elections as rigged if his political opponents should emerge triumphant. These are unchartered waters ahead. Democracy relies on the power of the people. It’s vulnerable to demagogues with unchecked power and requires strong people to defend and preserve it. One wonders when the people will “make good trouble” (John Lewis) and take it back from those who are taking it away.
