The first three weeks of the Trump administration brought a well-orchestrated flood of executive orders and bureaucratic shutdowns and takeovers of government agencies that have triggered firings, threats, freezes and attacks that have created a sense of chaos.
The list of attacks is long. The President tried to slash more than $3 trillion in spending on social services needed by millions. The administration began to ramp up raids on impoverished immigrant communities. Another executive order cut all support for any and all sustainable energy and transportation programs. Another executive order ended all support for the World Health Organization and other humanitarian organizations. There is a proposal to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) entirely. The President, his cabinet officials who are already in place, and Elon Musk are going into government agencies, threatening and firing workers, and shutting down major government bodies and programs. There was a purge of Inspectors General throughout government agencies. The President continues to install incompetent or clearly inappropriate loyalist cronies as heads of government agencies. The nominee for FBI Director will almost surely “re-Hooverize” the FBI and make it into a tool of raw political repression. In order to pay for the continuing tax cuts for the rich and powerful, there are proposals to slash or eliminate Medicaid entirely and rumors about cuts to Medicare and Social Security (things the Republicans have wanted to get rid of for decades). There have been direct attacks on trans and LGBTQ rights. There are proposals to slash or eliminate funding for education. And the executive orders and bureaucratic loyalists are driving a fanatical push to eliminate any hint of the fantasy enemy that they have created – DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and “wokeness.” And by removing appointed members from commissions like the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, he has effectively paralyzed these organizations. And that’s only a partial list.
Many of these rapid-fire attacks are partly theater. Many are obviously unconstitutional and may be shot down in the many lawsuits that have already been filed against his actions thus far. But even if they are, they are designed to show his base that he is keeping his promises. They are also meant to sow a sense of chaos, a sense that the ground is shifting under our feet, a sense that we can’t do anything to stop their bulldozer-like tactics.
But many of these attacks are very real, and will probably do real damage even if a court at some point stops them. The NLRB is a case in point. The NLRB was created in 1935 to manage labor-business relations to try to stop workers’ rebellions against Depression-era misery, in the process sometimes upholding at least minimum rights for workers and their unions. Since Trump has removed key members, the body is not currently functioning. That means workers have nobody to turn if they are unfairly fired, or when Amazon or Starbucks or Tesla illegally undermine a union election, or when Amazon refuses to negotiate with a union the workers formed. It’s no coincidence that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have both filed suits to have the NLRB declared unconstitutional. And now, since Trump is effectively strangling it, they have nothing to worry about. They will be able to continue to ruthlessly exploit their workers without any worries about government oversight!
Similarly, if the FBI is once again made into the weaponized agency that it was under J. Edgar Hoover, it will have concrete consequences. Democrats may find themselves in jail for trying the hold the President accountable for his many crimes. Former law enforcement officials who tried to enforce the law against Trump’s minions may be prosecuted for crimes they couldn’t have imagined. And protesters of many sorts may find ourselves surveilled, harassed, attacked, even arrested or murdered, as happened during the two Red Scares of the 20th Century or during the government offensive against the Black Panther Party.
Trump’s intentional chaos may be part theater, but it will have at least some real consequences.
Trump and his administration have two clear goals. The first is to divide us by keeping us fixated on fake threats or imaginary enemies like immigrants, so-called “woke” people, trans people, and advocates for reproductive rights. The more they keep us focused on that stuff, it will distract us from what they really want to do.
That second goal is to take advantage of our distraction to cut, dismantle, or privatize the few functions of government that we need and that actually help us in any way. As they cut services and programs that we need, they will take over providing some of those services for themselves, they will keep taxes low for themselves, they will continue the endless financing of their military machine, and they will continue the flow of massive government subsidies and contracts that help make their corporations so profitable. Their program of austerity will leave us with less of what we need, while they profit from our loss. It will be a massive transfer of wealth upwards.
We can’t fall for this con game. Our enemies aren’t immigrants, or trans people, or “wokeness,” or radical Marxists. Our enemies are the billionaires and other capitalists and the reactionary politicians who support them.
And we can’t rely on the Democrats or the courts to save us. Neither of them are our ally in this struggle, and neither of them are prepared to stop the bulldozer tactics of Trump and his thugs.
The working class, the majority of the population, are the only force that can stop them. We are the ones who do the work. We make the system run. We have the power, if we choose to organize and use it. But we need to take action and organize now. Every day that we wait, the damage will get worse.
