In the past week or so, the courts have begun to try to set some boundaries on the MuskāMillerāTrump administrationās early blitz of recklessness.
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This judicial review provides at least a small reprieve, hope that some of the administrationās most destructive impulses will be stopped. Or at least pared back. But even with the courts stepping up, and even with the reality of the administrationās ineptitude sinking in, this early MuskāMillerāTrump blitz remains veryāmaybe irreparablyādamaging. Of course, there are a lot of moles to whack: the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are being dismantled at an alarming rate, and the court system is not known for being nimble. The administration is betting, perhaps rightly, that at least some of its thoughtless, lawless efforts will slip through the cracks.
But even if the courts caught them allāand even if every court facing each lawless escapade said, āNope, thatās not a thingāāstill the entire process would be doing serious damage to our institutions. Think of it as someone spoofing your identity and going on a shopping spree with your credit cards. Even if the goon gets caught, you still have to go store by store to argue that the fraudulent purchase wasnāt legitimate and hope the debt is forgiven. And all the while, perhaps long after all the debts are dealt with, the torrent of uncertainty kills your credit score.
Whatās annoying is the US cable/social media incessantly jumps right to the Trump/Musk framing of things.
The US AID shutdown has led to food aid stuck at ports as populations that rely on it starve.
How many americans have heard about the consequences of Trumpās actions? 1%? How many have heard about Elonās vague and baseless claims that US AID is a big fraud? It seems every Republican I know has heard that.
The answer, of course, is for the remaining USAID staff to just ignore conflicting instructions and just give the food away. Federal workers need to understand that the job they have is not secure whether they obey or not.
While I agree that would be ideal, I suspect a lot of the services that let them process that food out to who needs it are unavailable.
The federal workers that I know are doing everything they can to get everything thatās been spoken for out to the recipients ASAP. If food is rotting, I suspect itās because it canāt be moved.