Let’s be honest: We are all exhausted. And we are only slightly more than one month in.
If you thought things were going to slow down after the inaugural craze of executive orders, wildly unqualified Cabinet nominees (who all, by the way, were confirmed so far) and Elon Musk and his group of 20-something computer trolls rummaging through federal agency after federal agency, you would be wrong.
Recently, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed himself a king via social media post after gloating about killing New York’s proposed ordinance plan to address their parking problems in Manhattan. The post was met with the usual outrage from Democrats and silence from Republicans who, of course, did what they always do and proclaim, “Oh, that’s just Trump. You can’t take him seriously.” And then there was the full-frontal assault on Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who Trump has humiliated and disrespected on the international stage, by talking directly to Vladimir Putin and declaring they would end the war with peace talks, all while shunning Ukraine at the settlement table. Most embarrassing was Vice President JD Vance, who made a poor showing at the Munich Conference with a speech that stunned European leaders. For his part, Trump has unliterally changed over 50 years of solid U.S. policy toward Russia by clearly siding with Russia. Lest we had any doubts, this was confirmed for the whole world to see on Feb. 24 at the U.N. Security Council, when for the first time since World War II the United States voted with Russia, against her European partners and allies in a resolution that condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on the third anniversary of the attack. On Wednesday, Trump held his first official cabinet meeting, including Elon Musk, and, according to reports, reached a mineral rights deal with Ukraine for security that falls a bit short of legal extortion, in my opinion.
Beyond the initial shock of the past month, we have all heard from friends, family and neighbors about getting a myriad contradictory and alarming emails from the newly minted DOGE in the dark of night announcing that their jobs had been eliminated, or that they were offered a buyout for the rest of the year, or worse that they were being fired for bad performance reviews. Only to have those emails countermanded by Office of Personnel Management, agency heads and double-down on by Musk in tweets.
Whatever the case, career public servants, scientists, veterans, cancer researchers and the like now live in fear of where their next paycheck will come from, whether they can put food on the table or how to pay the mortgage on a home. This is not what new civil servants signed up for or what those who have dedicated the last 30 years of their lives to public service deserve. And, even those who voted for Trump have been openly rebelling at town hall meetings in Republican-led districts across America.
If all of this wasn’t bad enough, Musk and “Big Balls” (yes, that is his nickname) trolled federal agencies by showing up with servers and gaining access to data and information from the Social Security Administration and the IRS. Both agencies are the keepers of American citizens’ most sensitive data, from our home addresses to our Social Security numbers to the tax returns that we filed for our entire lives and on and on.
Folks, if this is not a fast authoritarian coup, I do not know what is.
Also recently, the Trump administration, in a legal filing to the U.S. Circuit Court, made it clear that they intend to act in defiance of the courts. This will set up a showdown at the Supreme Court over enumerated powers in the Constitution, who has them and who can do what — the Executive or Congress. It also threatened members of Congress who dared to speak against the president or disagree with him publicly. And lest we forget, Trump banned the 135-year-old Associated Press from the White House for refusing to use the “Gulf of America” in its reporting as Trump newly declared the “Gulf of Mexico” to be in his inaugural address.
I hope that people are starting to wake up. Right here in Georgia, there was a congressional town hall on Feb. 20 (in a safe Republican district) for Rep. Rich McCormick outside of Roswell, and it got testy. He was trying to convince his constituents that cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid should be supported by them. They were not having it. People are angry and concerned that Trump has gone too far with DOGE and Musk. Up where I live in northern Virginia, where there are over 140,000 federal employees, there have been protests in D.C., outside of federal agencies and on the National Mall over the actions of DOGE and Trump.
What will it take to fight back and stop this madness and the quick unraveling of our beloved Republic before it is too late?
Does anyone think our Founding Fathers would agree with this?
Thomas Jefferson is somewhere rolling over in his grave. His greatest fears about John Adams and Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist system have come true: that the centralized government grew so big and so cumbersome that people began to see it as their enemy. Former presidents Adams and Jefferson believed in dramatically different roles for the executive. Jefferson believed in an executive with limited powers, accountable to the people’s representatives (Congress), and Adams believed in a centralized executive with great powers vested in his office.
Yet, neither of them did or would do anything to harm the Republic they fought to form. Both detested kings and tyrants. Both believed in freedom. They both feared the day that a man like Trump might emerge and pondered whether the people’s representatives would fight back and rid the Republic quickly of his ilk with the tools they provided in the Constitution that we still use to this day.
Regrettably, so far, we have failed that test badly. Only time will tell if we make it to 2026 and our 250th birthday with the America we all once knew and loved still intact.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
Sophia A. Nelson is the author of “Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama” and “E Pluribus One: Reclaiming our Founders’ Vision for a United America.” She is a former GOP counsel for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee.
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