It’s not even 100 days since the inauguration of the 47th president. Yet, with his Project 2025 playbook in hand, Trump has turned over the tables of our government and sent our system crashing. With the appointment of Elon Musk, his biggest campaign funder, together they created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE for short) and set in motion a “slash and burn” approach to dismantling our federal government.

Musk has taken his new job very seriously. The latest count of federal employees who have been fired or have accepted buyouts has now well-exceeded 100,000. The incredible amounts of money frozen or cut from critical government agencies and contractors has not been confirmed, largely due to inaccurate reports by Musk and his team. What can be verified is that countless projects, that took decades to implement and reach levels of measurable success, are no longer operational. These include critical research for cures for cancer and other serious diseases; for highly trained staff ensuring safe entry into flight corridors surrounding our busiest airports; global monitoring of infectious diseases to prevent outbreaks like COVID-19, or climate activities that warn us of hurricanes and tornadoes; even inspectors of farm products who ensure that our nation’s food supply is safe to eat. These are just a few examples of hundreds of federal programs, created for our safety and benefit, now undermined or disappeared.   

Within each agency, inspectors who were tasked with reducing waste and fraud have now been replaced by Trump loyalists with little or no experience in that field. Instead of continuing efforts to improve our internal systems of governance,  Musk has chosen to destroy them, resulting in utter chaos. For all of us depending on the news media to keep us informed about his daily attacks, we are left wondering in a state of disbelief, fear or despair. Minnesota’s two Senators, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, have been reporting an increase in distress calls from constituents flowing into their phone desks at an alarming rate. From pre-Trump days at approximately 100 calls to now over 1,000 per day, and many stories detailing heart-wrenching circumstances. 

DOGE actions have triggered dozens of lawsuits by states’ attorney generals for illegal activities or violations of our Constitution. Never in our nearly 250-year history have we experienced such a radical shift in our national priorities as the one we are seeing now — all at one man’s behest, Donald J. Trump, and his unvetted appointee, Elon Musk, who lacks both the official security clearances and the expertise to be meddling like this in our government’s internal affairs. 

This dismantling of the intricate network of our federal agencies has advanced beyond the checks and balances built into our Constitution by its founders meant to protect our democracy.  The majority members of the Congress, charged with writing laws and appropriating funds to enact them, have inappropriately abdicated many of their responsibilities to the Executive branch, an extraordinary breach of the public’s trust in that critical branch of our government.  As Musk has made decisions to cut programs and services, the Congress has declined to exercise its constitutional powers to stop these unauthorized actions by repeatedly deferring to Executive branch demands. In order for any legal restraints to be employed on Trump’s, or his DOGE’s, unconstitutional actions, any complaints must first defy a panoply of carrots and sticks hanging over the heads of every Republican member of Congress, as well as multiple lawsuits and court appeals moving through a log-jammed judicial system, only to eventually land at the most powerful bench, the Supreme Court which has already ruled largely in favor of the president’s immunity to any judicial reproach. In short, this leaves the country in the hands of people drunk with power and willing to abuse it, with no quick or easy way to stop their moving train.

There’s growing distress among the population. As the effects of these changes ripple through every state, affecting anyone and everyone regardless of creed or color, personal priorities, or party affiliation, many of us are seeing that we’ve been hood-winked by manipulation, disinformation and outright lies. For those of us who voted for Trump, our decision rested in part on his record during his first term in office. But what we saw then could not forebode what is happening now at the speed and scale with which it is occurring.  It’s never easy to recognize or admit that we’ve made a terrible mistake. Otherwise, more of us would be announcing from the rooftops that “This is not what we voted for!” But if we want to save what we have that’s what needs to happen. 

Now, with growing evidence that Social Security, VA benefits, Medicare and Medicaid are in the crosshairs of the “Musk administration,” huge constituencies will soon be feeling the pain of their lives turned upside down. From their vantage points, the future looks very scary.  They will join the ranks with others already suffering, as the Campaigner Trump so cavalierly warned. Like farmers, unable to sell their crops due to President Trump’s trade wars. Disabled veterans, who already suffered for their country, now living in fear of losing critical benefits as promised to compensate for their service-connected injuries. Or lower income workers, who will lose access to the necessary resources that supplement low earnings to help secure adequate housing and nutrition for their families. Miners, production workers, and small business owners, who are also beginning to feel the negative impacts of excessive across-the-board tariffs. The stock market, a major driver of many business investment decisions, now a roller-coaster, disrupting the markets and leading economists to predict an inevitable recession or worse. This is disruption greater than any society can withstand and there’s more to come. And for what? 

The House vote on the Congressional Budget Bill made it clear. The cuts are to fund the largest tax cut in our nation’s history, currently estimated to add $4 trillion dollars to the national debt over the next ten years. And that’s likely a rough guesstimate.  The Congressional Budget Office reports that it will benefit the top 0.1-percent of Americans, meaning a mere one-tenth of one percent of tax-filers will receive a tax reduction of $278,000. Meanwhile, 28 million households in the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers will see no reduction in their tax bill.  And 14 million households in the lowest tier of that 80 percent will see their taxes go up! As if the super rich, after filing their return, need more money in their pockets.  To the average billionaire, this boost will seem more like a generous tip left for the golf caddy, in contrast to what it would mean to most of us who earn far less than six figures a year.  

This is what ires many Americans. That the richest among us get a big tax break while many of us get nothing back, or end up paying more. It should inspire us to challenge those who are writing these rules. 

Many voters who pulled the lever for Republicans in November, 2024 did so in hopes of a better life. More affordable housing. Lower costs of food, child care and utilities. More money to keep the car and appliances running. The big question now is this. How long until voters who are not getting what they voted for are able to realize that they were tricked by the richest people in the world who betrayed them with campaign slogans rife with empty promises. 

Cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security hang like a dark cloud over many people’s future.  In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt signed these programs into law to reduce the unacceptably high poverty rate among older and disadvantaged Americans. His answer was to enact programs that have survived over ninety years of scrutiny and still receive the greatest approval ratings among recipients and the country at large, proving both their importance and success.  To consider weakening them rather than improving upon them is not only stupid but unconscionable, removing assistance to people who can no longer work and independently support themselves.  

To disregard the welfare of the elderly, the ill, the disabled, young children, and our veterans is not American. We’ve always willingly shared responsibility for the vulnerable. Hands down! If you don’t believe it, just consider the number of Americans volunteering across our country making sure of that. We donate millions of hours and dollars every day because we are people who care about each other. 

We must stand up to the biggest lie of all - that caring for our families and neighbors in need doesn’t matter. Our actions speak louder than their words. This is who we are!  It’s imprinted on the soul of our nation. And we should never let that be lost. 

The writing is on the wall. Trump and his hand-picked billionaire Cabinet members can sit around a table with Elon Musk, apparently in charge, selling and leading a frontal assault upon the American people. Enshrined in a well-crafted plan called Project 2025, he is out to shrink and reorganize our way of life, and is working at full throttle. These actions in the first 100 days have been shocking beyond belief, touching everything from the security of our nation’s nuclear arsenal to the precious hands-on-care provided to the aging people in our nursing homes who we love.

The greed for money and power are intertwined. Our government is in the hands of a group of self-interested billionaires with a well-planned playbook, racing to some kind of dystopian goalpost. 

We will be the losers if we don’t come to our senses. If this were a meteor hurling toward Earth, we’d realize that we share more in common than not. We wouldn’t be wasting time asking, “Who did you vote for?”  It’s time we pull together. We need to start talking to one another again about what really matters? The election is over. 

Notice the letters to the editor written by folks seeking direction and others trying to respond. Read the flyer in the grocery store window or a social media post inviting you to a meeting. See the people standing on a street corner holding signs with their message, hoping you’ll read it and think about it later. These are all opportunities to learn from each other about what we can and should be doing to take back our power and save our fragile system of government, one that so many countries strive for and our forebears died for. Our time is now.