It Has No Impact

Increasingly aligning the United States and Donald Trump with the fascist practices of Russia and and Vladimir Putin (among others).

We’ll end with Eliza Gilkyson’s “Dark Ages.”

Notes and Sources:

Elena Shao and Ashley Wu, “The Federal Work Force Cuts So Far, Agency by Agency,” New York Times, as of May 5, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/28/us/politics/trump-doge-federal-job-cuts.html

Hannah Natanson and Maxine Joselow, “The hidden ways Trump, DOGE are shutting down parts of the U.S. government,” Washington Post, May 11, 2025, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/11/trump-government-operations-halt-funding-cuts/

Celine McNicholas and Ben Zipperer, “Trump is enabling Musk and DOGE to flout conflicts of interest,” Economic Policy Institute, May 7, 2025, https://www.epi.org/publication/trump-is-enabling-musk-and-doge-to-flout-conflicts-of-interest-what-is-the-potential-cost-to-u-s-families/

Timothy Snyder, On Freedom, (Crown, 2024), xii-xiv, 12-14, and throughout. What I cite here just scratches the surface of Snyder’s exploration of freedom.

—. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century, (Crown, 2017), 22-25.

Musk and DOGE are carrying out the desires of the authors of Project 2025 at the same time they are weakening institutions like the NLRB, the CFPB, and the FTC, whose functions oversee companies like Musk’s. I don’t know anyone who does not want the government (or the dentist or the plumber or the electric company) to be more efficient and effective. The question is whether DOGE is doing any good amid its harm; or just obeying Project 2025 and serving Musk.

250 million is a conservative estimate. With a population of some 333 million, some 22 million millionaires, and some 900 billionaires (some of whom may not need or care about institutions), the number of Americans who trust in and rely on government services is closer to 300 million. Let me note that most of the handful of folks I know personally with a net worth of more than a million dollars support paved roads, interstate highways, public education, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, USAID, the CDC, the NEA, the Library of Congress, NOAA, NLRB, CFPB, and much else.