Trump’s reckless assault on the federal workforce affects every aspect of our lives

The Texas tragedy is at the front edge of harm facing the country as Trump dismantles the government.

The devastating floods and tragic deaths that occurred in Central Texas earlier this month are a glaring warning sign of what’s to come in the months and years ahead—not just additional natural disasters and heartbreak but a huge societal toll from President Donald Trump’s reckless assault on the federal workforce and critical programs and services affecting every aspect of our lives.

Rather than strengthen the government’s ability to help communities deal with hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and wildfires, the administration has made nonstrategic staffing and budget cuts at critical federal agencies involved in predicting and responding to natural disasters that include the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Nothing could have stopped the Guadalupe River in Central Texas from flooding, but it is likely that a more robust response and better planning at the federal, state, and local levels might have reduced fatalities and lessened the impact.

The stark reality is that the Texas disaster is at the front edge of long tail of harm awaiting the country, with the Trump administration undermining the nonpartisan civil service and its expertise while taking a sledgehammer to many of the government’s critical functions, actions that will have a direct impact on the services Americans rely on every day as well threaten our national security and well-being.

The examples of this unfolding horror show abound.

Amid the worst measles outbreak since 1992, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is using his power to cast doubt on the use of vaccines and putting the nation at risk. The administration has withdrawn from the World Health Organization, fired expert members of a vaccine advisory panel, and canceled a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics.

Reduced staffing at the Social Security Administration, which serves 73 million beneficiaries, has led to overwhelmed customer service operations and resulted in long wait times for its toll-free number while the agency has experienced problems with its website and had difficulty making in-person appointments.

The Environmental Protection Agency has fired and sidelined career staff with the expertise needed to and protect the public from environmental harm, and countless attorneys at the Department of Justice and agents at the FBI have been purged, making the nation less safe and placing the rule of law in jeopardy. And, without congressional authorization, the administration has effectively shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects the public from unfair, deceptive and abusive practices, and is in the process of gutting the Department of Education and the assistance it provides to students and schools across the country.

The list goes on. With wars ongoing in the Middle East and Ukraine and countless foreign policy challenges, Trump last week laid off more than 1,300 State Department employees, dismantled parts of the National Security Council designed to provide the president with coherent options dealing with consequential foreign policy issues, effectively shut down the Voice of America that has offered reliable information about the United States to international audiences for decades, and crushed the U.S. Agency for International Development that has provided critical foreign assistance and humanitarian aid to poor countries around the world.

All of this has taken place in just six months, and the longer and deeper these cuts occur, the greater the damage that will be done. In many respects, Trump has inflicted more harm to our government and country than our adversaries could ever imagine doing on their own.

The most radical and harmful change being imposed by the administration is the abandonment of the idea that public resources are intended for the public good.

One could make the argument that by winning the election, Trump and his appointees get to decide what best serves the needs of the public, but they have frequently bypassed Congress, violated the Constitution, eliminated a wide range of institutional guardrails designed to prevent abuse and illegality, used governmental power to punish perceived enemies, and converted the government into an instrument for the president’s private and personal interests.

Trump and his team are effectively acting like property developers who cut down a redwood grove and said, “Sue me if you think what I did was illegal.” Whatever the eventual outcome of any litigation, the trees are gone and there is no bringing them back.

Trump’s tactics, including removing qualified civil servants who follow the law and constrain executive abuse of power, limiting oversight, and rewarding loyalists, mirror the machinations of authoritarian leaders in Hungary and Turkey to usurp control over all institutions that can limit them.

There is no doubt our government should be modernized and waste and inefficiencies eliminated, but the devastating reductions to the workforce and government functions and the rampant abuse of power virtually guarantee our country will face many unnecessary crises in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

We need to document what is happening, speak up, connect the dots, and understand that Trump and his appointees are not on a path of reform or eliminating waste or saving money; rather they are subverting public resources, undermining democracy, and placing our nation at risk.

Max Stier is the founding president and CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, an organization focused on building a better government and a stronger democracy.

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