by John Schneeberger, Hamilton
The Trump administration’s budgetary and personnel cuts are unprecedented in both scale and ruthlessness. I know elections have consequences and the Republican control of the Federal government means that they can legally downsize the government. It is not clear, however, whether they can legally impound funds and disband agencies and programs in contravention of established law. The courts will be busy sorting that out.
What is unique and disturbing is that Trump is having a foreign private billionaire, that has built his business on $38 billion in government contracts, and has billions more in existing contracts, put in charge of downsizing and dismantling departments and offices that regulates his business. This sort of self-dealing, of which Trump has taken advantage of in his previous administration, is known as corruption. Trump got away with flouting the emoluments clause and overcharging the government to use his properties because the laws did not exist or were toothless because it was inconceivable that a President would be so blatant. The existing ability of the Federal government to prevent the new emerging corruption is also under attack. Through executive order Trump has conducted a wholesale firing of inspector generals, gutted the enforcement of statutes against foreign influence, suspended enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and summarily fired the head of the government ethics office.
The civil service that was based on the rule of law is becoming a thing of the past and the new criteria for public employment is loyalty to Trump. And by that I don’t mean a grand strategy to remake a better government. I mean loyalty to promoting the business interests of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.