Chaos, Corruption and Collapse - America approaches its 250th birthday

In 2024, Americans voted for a corrupt, venal, sexually amoral felon for president and we are paying the price for elevating a felon to the highest office in the land. His party bows only to Trump. "The Constitution, if it gets in the way of Trump's corruption, is essentially to be ignored by the party. 

Since assuming office, he's ripped apart the apparatus of the federal government. Though no one could ever confirm that Elon Musk, a South African immigrant who has multiple billion dollar contracts with the federal government, was the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (AKA DOGE, named for a crypto coin favored by Elon Musk), Musk served as the de facto face of the "temporary" government entity, which previous to DOGE was formerly known as the United States Digital Service (this was done to get around the need for congressional approval for a new department.) 

Musk and his lackeys took a sledgehammer to budgets, congressional contracts, approved grants, etc., and they also unilaterally fired more than 300,000 federal employees. In stopping payments on funding approved by Congress, they took a sledgehammer to the constitutional budgetary powers allocated by the Constitution to Congress. Republicans in Congress did not protest. 

Musk and his lackeys (can't think of a better term) kept claiming that these actions "saved" taxpayers billions of dollars, but like almost everything out of the Trump White House, that was a lie. They did defund cancer and other medical research - yippee for us! They've also made any kind of research to be an uncertain career path in America; the brain drain will be significant and we will pay a very high price for this egregious failure to support science and other research projects. 

In February 2025, Trump and the dishonest VP JD Vance hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Ostensibly, US interests lie in backing Ukraine over Russia. Instead, the world was witness to the US president and vice-president verbally battering Zelensky for his actions to protect his nation from an invasion, claiming his resistance could start World War III. Vance then went on to berate Zelensky for not showing gratitude to the US. (Like virtually everything out of Vance's mouth, this was a lie, but he has openly boasted about making shit up for attention.) Trump's fondness for Putin was cemented when he rolled out the red carpet for the dictator of Russia. His fawning over the authoritarian leader of an enemy state is a horror to watch. 

                                     U.S. soldiers roll out the red carpet for Putin, August 2025

The Trump administration engaged in terrorism against immigrants throughout 2025, and this vilence has continued into 2026. In Chicago, ICE/Border Patrol (BP) stormed an apartment building in the dead of night, broke down doors, arrested undocumented works (again, in the middle of the night) - all without judicial warrants. Despite claims of Tren de Aragua gang infestation in the building, not one person arrested in that raid was criminally charged. Now-fired Kristi Noem paid (with our tax dollars) a video team to capture and document the excitement. 

In Minnesota, ICE/BP agents have acted violently against immigrants and civilians. Multiple immigrants have died in ICE custody. Worse, they actively kill people - in Minnesota, ICE agents murdered Renee Nicole Good, a mom, for the crime of trying to get away from them. They also violently attacked Alex Pretti, a nurse, for the crime of trying to help a woman they'd beaten. They knocked Pretti down, found he had a gun (legally), disarmed him – and then shot him 10 times in the back. Noem and BP head Greg Bovino then claimed Pretti brandished a weapon as he approached the ICE agents. Videos show that Noem lied. These two deaths are murders, but none of the ICE agents have been charged. They've gotten the message that Trump is fine if they murder protesters. And you KNOW that Good and Pretti's family will be denied any funds from that $1.776 billion fund for people harmed by the government. That money will only go to Trump's base. 

 

The government seeks to build warehouses across the country to house "migrants." You can bet these concentration camps, owned by private companies, will be used to jail more than migrants. 

The Trump administration has also decided that blowing up boats in international waters is part of their constitutional rights as well. They claim to be blowing up drug boats, but that this means is that the US government is acting as judge, jury and executioner - all without any evidence of any crime presented to any court of law anywhere. (Here's a story about one of the numerous attacks on boats in international waters.) 

In October 2025, Trump unilaterally decided it was time to tear down the East Wing of the White House. He plans to spend an enormous amount of money to build a garish ballroom bunker on that site. Republicans in Congress seem fine with this - none are protesting - none seem opposed to investing billions into a no-bid contract to build this atrocity. The man has no taste whatsoever - his decorations of the Oval Office are gilded and tacky. He shames all of us every time he opens the Oval Office to visitors. In addition to the ballroom, he wants to repaint the reflecting pool a garish blue color and he wants to build a triumphal arch. He claims he needs no government approval to do any of this - and he claims no need to go to congress for the billions he wants for these projects. 

 

In other words, the president has decided to rule as an authoritarian, no checks and balances. In that goal, he has been fully enabled by John Roberts and his Federalist Society cronies on the court.  

Trump decided as president to sue the federal government for an IRS leak of his tax returns - his was one of thousands of returns leaked to the public. The man who is president was seeking $10 billion in damages from the government he leads. He decided to drop that case and instead make a "deal" with his government that there would establish a slush fund for Trump to disperse – with $1.776 billion to go to the people "harmed" by the government - i.e. the January 6 insurrectionists he earlier pardoned. Our tax dollars are to go to the people who violently attacked the Capitol 

These are just some of the corrupt actions we've endured since Trump took office. Everyday there is a new scandal. Everyday, the latest scandal knocks yesterday's scandal off the headlines. It's exhausting to be led by corrupt, greedy men. The monumental waste of our tax dollars is appalling, and yet approved by the party that has long focused on "saving" our taxes. The Republicans, despite their claims, are very poor stewards of our money - they are overly fond of wasting Other People's Money (OPM, as they like to call it when yammering about Democratic policies to fund healthcare and education, etc.) 

It is an understatement to note that it has been shocking to witness the federal government devolve into a Soviet-style authoritarian state that uses military actions to invade apartments and homes without warrants. And they also charge protestors with fictitious crimes, which necessitates the citizens to lawyer up at great expense to defend themselves against a rogue administration that is using federal resources to attack private citizens that oppose them politically. 

The scope of the corruption and violence is truly shocking. The violence against Americans and our constitution is unacceptable. But here we are, not quite halfway through Trump's second term. He promises he's not going anywhere. In July, the nation will celebrate its 250th birthday, led by the man and the party that are intent on destroying the great American experiment. And they are more than halfway to that goal.