In slashing staff and disabling entire agencies the administration is lacerating the structures of US democracy

Summary

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s drastic federal budget cuts and regulatory rollbacks have sparked legal and political backlash.

Musk has gutted agencies while Trump fired 17 inspectors general without legal notice.

Critics liken the firings to “firing cops before you rob the bank,” accusing Trump of dismantling oversight to benefit donors and special interests.

Judges have blocked some moves, prompting Trump and Musk to attack the judiciary and threaten impeachment.

Lawsuits are challenging their actions, warning of constitutional violations and unchecked executive power.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    12·
    5 days ago

    Tbh, I think that dismantling the federal government this aggressively and this scattershot is going to destroy the legitimacy (in the sense of whether people accept the government as legitimate) of the federal government at the same time as it destroys its capacity to govern. It might shamble on for a while like that unless they do something real fucking stupid like try to invade Canada, at which point I think you’ll finally see a bunch of states say enough and declare independence as regional nations.

    It’ll probably be a good thing on the whole, imo. I imagine it’ll open the door for quite a few changes that have been prevented by an unresponsive federal government.

    • littlewonder@lemmy.world
      7·
      5 days ago

      That’s been their plan this whole time: slowly break the system by defunding important services like USPS and education, etc., and then point to those poorly funded programs and give hot takes about how the government sucks and we need to privatize it.