Donald Trump’s consistent habit of leading with antagonism, rudeness, and chaos is one of the very least presidential characteristics of a most unpresidential man.
Much worse in his second term, this habit is apparently underpinned by a deep and perverse belief that it is always to his advantage to anger, frighten, and/or confuse as an opening act, as he does so even with parties who should not reasonably be considered his enemy.
Like, you know, staunch allies. And federal employees.
As I said in my first letter to Dale Strong, I value government efficiency highly, and I believe it should be pursued. I think probably most reasonable people hold this belief. We should have the smallest government we can get away with. And when we go about trying to reduce its size, we should do so methodically and diplomatically.
There has been nothing methodical or diplomatic about Trump turning Elon Musk and his minions loose to needlessly upset many thousands of people with rude, disrespectful messages, or to indiscriminately fire many thousands of people including significant numbers targeted just because they were the newest hires.
(Reckon we lost some bright, eager go-getters we’d rather not have lost with such a blunt and ill-considered move? I do.)
So we are clear, I have worked closely with federal employees for a substantial majority of my career. Did I ever meet a bad federal employee? Once in a great while I did (but I met many more bad contractors). Did I ever meet a good federal employee? Yes, and rather often, actually. Some of the hardest-working and most dedicated professionals—the most roll-up-your-sleeves-and-let’s-get-‘er-done folks, frankly—I’ve ever known were and are U.S. Government employees.
It makes me so angry to consider how badly they’ve been treated in just the first month of this administration. There are so many outstanding people I could highlight, which I’m obviously not going to do because extra attention isn’t exactly incentivized right now, is it?
“Aren’t you supposed to be some kind of a reasonable businessman?” – Jesse Pinkman to Gus Fring, Breaking Bad
There’s no way Trump is losing as much support as he should for this terrible behavior, because too many of his supporters are brainwashed into rationalizing everything he does into gold.
But I hope he’s lost some.
I heard James Carville opine that Musk’s antics will generate more Dem votes than Obama. I think that is probably true. More than one of my co-workers has shared they feel lied to and violated for how Government workers are being vilified and separated without cause.
I’ve heard and read several places that Trump is losing supporters. I hope it’s true, but I’m skeptical. A substantial percentage of his base needs full-on deprogramming. There is no appreciable difference between lockstep Trump sycophants and cult members.