Trump’s strategy since taking office has been clear: to grab as much power for the presidency as possible, while he and Elon Musk — the wealthiest person in the world, who was unelected — systematically try to dismantle public services, while pushing through massive tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. This is what we’ve been seeing play out daily since Trump took office, claiming unlimited executive power alongside firing tens of thousands of government workers, and slashing funds to many services that provide important — even if limited — support for working people.
Musk and DOGE have been busy firing government workers across departments. Many of these firings include workers like nurses who care for veterans, scientists conducting critical cancer research, workplace safety inspectors, national park rangers keeping our parks safe, and more. The Post Office faces similar threats of mass layoffs and privatization. And they plan to make huge attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
They have begun their attempt to gut and dismantle the entire Department of Education, which provides funding for education in low-income communities, school lunch programs, financial aid programs, and programs for students with disabilities. They hope to ban curriculum that even mentions anything of the history of struggles against racism, discrimination, and oppression.
The dismantling extends far beyond education, and includes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which provided minimal but useful protections against predatory practices of big banks. The Food and Drug Administration, which faces big cuts, is mainly a tool of big food and drug corporations, but it also provides safety oversight of food and pharmaceutical products. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), already operating with minimal resources and impact, faces complete elimination, threatening decades of workplace safety.
Trump and Musk claim these cuts are simply to eliminate government waste and fraud — and most workers know that our hard-earned tax dollars are heavily wasted and misused. Just recall the trillions that were given to banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Or what about the Department of Defense’s massive $1.71 trillion budget for 2025? Or what about Congress members who earn $174,000 annually with lifetime health benefits? Clearly, their goal has nothing to do with wasted spending. Their goal is to eliminate or gut programs that help working people and the poor, and to remove every last obstacle and regulation that stands in the way of more corporate power and profits.
Some judges have pushed back and are trying to block some of Trump’s moves, but the courts move slowly, and the Supreme Court has been willing to back Trump on most decisions. By the time cases are decided, the damage will be extensive and hard to reverse. Gutted agencies can’t be quickly rebuilt, and the human cost — in lost jobs, services, and lives — can’t be easily undone.
While the Republicans have gone along with all of this, the Democrats have only opposed Trump with words, while openly saying they have no power to stop this. We don’t need them and their pathetic promises. In the end, the Democrats defend the same system, and represent the same wealthy interests, which so far have not flinched in their support for Trump’s policies.
We have to see these moves by the Trump administration for what they are. This is an open assault on working-class people, targeting every aspect of our lives — our jobs, health, safety, support, access to public spaces, and more. The ruling class can only increase their profits and wealth by making the lives of working people more difficult. This is a clear transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling class. We should call it what it is — a class war. And that’s why they need more authoritarian power in the hands of the presidency. They want the gloves and the mask to come off, so they have few limits to their power to repress any movements that rise up to resist these blatant attacks.
Facing all of this, the conclusion is clear. If we want to protect our lives and our jobs, we can’t wait for politicians to save us. The only way forward is for working people to organize ourselves, to build our own power, and to fight back together. Our future depends on it.
