SIGNALGATE: AN UNFORGIVABLE NATIONAL SECURITY BREACH

Top Trump administration officials in the military and intelligence agencies have committed an unbelievable and unforgivable breach of national security. Investigations by Congress and the military are essential. Officials responsible should resign, be fired, or be impeached, and perhaps prosecuted.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

There is NO EXCUSE for top Trump administration officials communicating secret military plans over Signal, an unsecured, commercial messaging app, whose use is SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED by Defense Department policy. Included in the Signal chat group discussing the March 15 attack in Yemen, before and during the action, were:

Secretary of Defense Hegseth and Secretary of State Rubio,
The President’s National Security Advisor Waltz and Chief of Staff Wiles,
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Ratliffe and the Director of National Intelligence Gabbard,
Vice President Vance, and others.

None of them, over the four-day chat (3/11 – 3/15), raised a red flag over the illegal use of an unsecured communication channel, with a reporter accidentally included no less. This is astounding. Any government employee of lower rank who engaged in such a breach of security would be fired immediately and jailed without bail. Concerning elements of this national security breach include:

The incompetence, inexperience, and cavalier attitude toward sensitive information of these top Trump administration official is stunning and unacceptable.
This strongly implies that senior Trump administration officials are regularly having very sensitive communications over an unsecured, commercial messaging app in violation of the law.
Some of them were using their personal, unsecured phones. Experts have stated that it’s highly likely foreign intelligence services are monitoring their personal phones. (Official government-issued secured phones have special encryption and other security features, including the inability to download apps, such as Signal, WhatsApp, X, etc. that make a phone vulnerable to hacking.) [1]
Secretary of Defense Hegseth repeatedly lied about what had occurred and Gabbard and Ratliffe lied under oath at a Senate hearing. [2]
President Trump stated he had no knowledge of the breach on March 24. Based on the pre-attack messaging, which Trump was not part of, it appears the decision to go ahead with the strikes was made by deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, not the President, which is startling. Stunningly, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the military was also not included.
The name of at least one CIA operative was revealed in the messaging. [3]
The revelation of a specific, targeted individual and on-the-ground intelligence about him, while the strike was on-going, is breathtaking and put intelligence sources at risk. (Apparently some of the intelligence and sources were Israeli and the Israelis are furious about the compromising of their information and sources.)
It must be assumed that Russia and China (and maybe other adversaries such as Iran and North Korea) have the ability to intercept these unsecured communications, according to multiple experts. An internal bulletin from the National Security Agency warned staff in February 2025 not to use Signal, citing concerns that the app was vulnerable to Russian hackers. [4]
The Signal messaging app being used by top Trump administration officials deletes communications after a set period of time – days or a few weeks. This violates federal laws requiring the preservation of documents and communications. Signal may well have been deliberately used here and in other communications to evade having a public record. [5]

All members of Congress, and particularly any with military service backgrounds, should be enraged and determined to get to the bottom of this. It is a national security breach of breathtaking seriousness that could or may have endangered the lives of military and intelligence personnel. Our troops and our country are clearly not being kept safe. If the Iranians had access to the messaging and had alerted their Houthi allies (the targets) to prepare for the attack, including anti-aircraft weaponry, the U.S. jets and pilots would have been at serious risk and the success of the mission would likely have been compromised.

The military itself should undertake a rigorous investigation with decisive punishment for those guilty of compromising national security. [6]

Reporters and internet sleuths have found personal information about phones and email addresses for a number of the chat participants, including usernames and passwords for email accounts for Hegseth, Waltz, and Gabbard. This makes it highly likely that foreign adversaries have been monitoring everything they have communicated since their nominations. [7]

There are many serious implications of this breach of national security. Here are a few:

Allies will NOT be sharing sensitive intelligence with the U.S. because they cannot trust that it will be kept secure. (This exacerbates their concerns raised by Trump’s behavior in his first term and his taking of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago at the end of it.)
U.S. soldiers’ lives are at-risk because Trump administration members are not maintaining security about upcoming military actions and allies won’t be sharing their intelligence.
U.S. CIA agents’ lives are at-risk because Trump administration members will include their names in unsecured communications and allies won’t be sharing their intelligence.

If you haven’t already, please contact your US Representative and Senators to express your concerns and outrage about this astonishingly dangerous national security breach. (And if you have been in touch with them, it can’t hurt to contact them again.) Ask them to demand a full investigation of the unsecured communication about the March 15 military action in Yemen. Ask them to demand the resignations, firing, impeachment, and/or prosecution of the officials involved. Hypocritically, Hegseth, Rubio, Gabbard, and Ratliffe have all stated the importance of secure handling of sensitive information and the need for accountability when it is mishandled in past attempts to criticize Democrats for supposed breaches of national security. Just imagine what Republicans would be saying if a Democrat had committed a breach anywhere near this serious!

You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

[1] Hubbell, R., 3/27/25, “Signalgate: A crack in the façade?” Daily Edition Newsletter (Signalgate: A crack in the facade? – by Robert B. Hubbell)

[2] Queally, J., 3/26, “Here are the texted war plans that Hegseth said ‘Nobody was texting’ on Signal,” Common Dreams (https://www.commondreams.org/news/war-plans-signal-hegseth)

[3] Cox Richardson, H., 3/24/25, “Letters from an American,” (March 24, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson)

[4] Cox Richardson, H., 3/26/25, “Letters from an American,” (March 26, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson)

[5] Hubbell, R., 3/25/25, “Criminal recklessness,” Daily Edition Newsletter (https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/criminal-recklessness)

[6] Editorial, 3/26/25, “A ‘gross error’ that needs to be punished,” The Boston Globe

[7] Hubbell, R., 3/28/25, “Let’s ‘create a ruckus’,” Daily Edition Newsletter (Let’s “create a ruckus.” – by Robert B. Hubbell)

PROTEST NATIONAL SECURITY BREACH ETC.

ACTION #1: Please contact your US Representative and Senators to ask them to demand a full investigation of the major national security breach around the March 15 military attack in Yemen. They should demand the resignations, firings, or impeachment of the officials involved. There’s NO EXCUSE for them communicating secret military plans over an unsecure, commercial messaging app whose use is SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITED by Defense Department policy. Included in the chat group were the:

Secretaries of Defense and State,
President’s National Security Advisor and Chief of Staff,
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director and the Director of National Intelligence,
Vice President, and others.

Any government employee of lower status who engaged in such a breach of security would be immediately jailed without bail. The incompetence, inexperience, lack of qualifications, and cavalier attitude toward sensitive information by these senior officials is stunning, egregious, and unacceptable. I will have more detail on this in my next post.

Note that many offices only accept messages on a voice mail system. In most cases, you can call outside of regular business hours and leave a message.

ACTION #2: Join a protest rally or march in-person if you can.

Big, nationwide HANDS OFF! protests are planned for Saturday, April 5. Go to Indivisible to find an event near you. Let’s make this a huge event!
Nationwide protest rallies at Tesla dealerships this Saturday, March 29. Put in your zip code at #TeslaTakedown and find a rally near you. These rallies have been very effective. They’ve gained media attention, and, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Tesla sales and its stock price are down substantially.

ARE TARIFFS AND NO TAX ON TIPS GOOD POLICIES?

Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips sounds good but analysis shows it’s bad policy. Tariffs can be used effectively, but Trump’s tariff actions are already hurting our economy and will raise prices. They’re also ripe for political corruption.

Trump’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tips sounds good but careful analysis shows it would benefit few workers, be unfair, create perverse incentives, and open a door for tax avoidance. On the other hand, tariffs can be used effectively, but Trump’s on-again-off-again, high, broad-based tariffs are already hurting our economy and will raise prices for consumers and businesses. They are also ripe for political corruption.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

Let’s take a step back from the dramatic and illegal actions of the Trump administration for a moment and take a look at their policy proposals on tariffs and eliminating taxes on tip income.

Trump has proposed eliminating income tax on tips, which sounds like a good policy that would help low-income workers. However, when carefully analyzed, it’s clearly a bad idea. First, it’s one more complexity in our tax code, unfairly treating some low-income workers and one type of income differently than others. It also creates a perverse incentive to create tip income, even the conversion of regular income to tip income. This is a new avenue for tax avoidance that some employers and business people would take advantage of. [1]

Second, eliminating tax on tips would help very few workers. Workers who earn less than $25 per hour and are in traditionally tipped jobs are only 2.5% of the overall workforce, which is about 4.3 million workers. However, 37% of tipped workers earn so little that they already don’t pay federal income tax. So, fewer than 2.5 million workers would benefit from eliminating tax on tips. Moreover, some low-income tipped workers would lose their eligibility for tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.

It’s unfair to give this benefit to low-wage tipped workers but no similar benefit to low-wage workers who don’t get tips, such as fast-food workers, teachers’ aides, retail cashiers, and bank tellers, for example. The biggest beneficiaries of eliminating taxes on tips would be servers in high-end, expensive restaurants who are already making a decent living.

Third, it undermines efforts to increase wages for all low-wage workers. Some employers might see this tax cut as a justification for not increasing workers’ wages. So, in effect, part of the benefit of this tax cut would go to employers rather than employees. It undermines efforts to raise the federal tipped worker minimum wage of only $2.13 per hour (set in 1993), as well as efforts to raise the regular federal minimum wage of $7.25 (set in 2009).

Fourth, it would incentivize increasing the number of tipped jobs because it would allow employers to pay $2.13 an hour rather than $7.25. Furthermore, tipping might proliferate to many services that currently aren’t tipped. Businesses might add an automatic “tip” to bills or classify a portion of their fees as “tips.” The use of “tipping” to dodge taxes could spread to a wide range of services such as car repair and servicing, appliance installation, child care, and even dental and legal services. [2]

An expansion of low wage tipped jobs is clearly not in workers’ economic interests and, furthermore, tipped work is rife with wage theft, worker mistreatment and abuse, and discrimination (including by tippers).

Turning to tariffs, Trump declared a fake economic emergency that gives him the power to unilaterally impose tariffs. Putting aside the disruptive aspects of threatening or implementing tariffs and then stepping back from them, let’s examine the role and impact of tariffs.

Tariffs can be used effectively to achieve important goals of economic and trade policy. They are most effective when they are narrowly targeted at well-defined goals as part of a larger, clearly established policy strategy. The three main goals of tariffs are: [3]

Protecting domestic production of specific products for reasons of national security, resilience of key supply chains, or other clearly justified purposes,
Protecting U.S. workers from unfair competition from specific other countries, and
Protecting domestic climate change and environmental policies from specific other countries with weaker policies.

High, broad-based tariffs harm the U.S. economy in multiple ways, and they do not reduce the U.S. trade deficit. They raise prices of imported goods for consumers and for businesses who use inputs that are imported. Furthermore, other countries are very likely to implement retaliatory tariffs or restrictions on the importation of U.S. products. For example, when Trump imposed tariffs on China in his first term, China retaliated with tariffs on U.S. agricultural products and a ban on the purchase of Boeing airplanes. The loss of the Chinese market had such a profound impact on U.S. farmers and ranchers that the Trump administration authorized $61 billion in emergency relief for them. This ate up (no pun intended) roughly all the tariff revenue generated by the Trump tariffs. Boeing lost the 25% of its sales that had been in China, and this strengthened the Chinese competitor to Boeing and increased its sales.

High, broad-based tariffs facilitate political corruption. They typically allow importers to petition for reductions of or exclusions from the tariffs. This favors politically connected or favored companies. The first Trump administration granted more than 100,000 exclusions or reductions to tariffs through a process that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Commerce Department’s Inspector General found lacked transparency and made inconsistent and apparently arbitrary decisions. Further analysis found that tariff reductions were used to reward political supporters and contributors, while punishing political opponents. [4]

[1] Cooper, D., & Mast, N., 2/6/25, “‘No tax on tips’ will harm more workers than it helps,” Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/blog/no-tax-on-tips-will-harm-more-workers-than-it-helps-proposals-in-congress-and-now-20-states-could-encourage-harmful-employer-practices-and-lead-to-tip-requests-in-virtually-every-co/)

[2] Cooper, D., & Mast, N., 2/6/25, see above.

[3] Hersh, A. S., & Bivens, J., 2/10/25, “Tariffs – Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask,” Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/publication/tariffs-everything-you-need-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask/)

[4] Hersh, A. S., & Bivens, J., 2/10/25, see above.

RESISTANCE AND PROTEST ACTIONS

ACTION #1: Please contact your US Representative and Senators regularly to thank them for what they do right and encourage them to resist and protest the harmful and/or illegal actions of the Trump administration and Musk. For example:

If they’ve held an in-person or virtual town hall meeting for constituents, thank them. If they have not, ask them to. Or ask them to hold another one. Participate if you can. Call their office afterwards and give them feedback on it.
Ask them to publicly condemn the Trump administration for its failure to comply with judges’ orders and to call for congressional hearings on the Trump administration’s failure to comply with court orders and requests for information.
If they are Democrats, ask them to form a shadow cabinet that would provide a daily critique of the actions of the Trump administration and its cabinet secretaries. They should state what Democrats would do differently and how that would benefit the American people.
Ask them to oppose the elimination of funding for our libraries from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This is the only federal government agency that supports libraries.
Or whatever else is on your mind or in the news.

Note that many offices only accept messages on a voice mail system. In most cases, you can call outside of regular business hours and leave a message.

ACTION #2: Join a protest rally or march in-person if you can. Big, nationwide protests are planned for Saturday, April 5, and there are many protests planned before then. Several national organizations, some with local chapters, are promoting the April 5 event as well as publicizing and organizing other protests. Here are some opportunities to find protests near you:

Indivisible is highlighting the April 5^th event and will help you find an event near you. It has local chapters you can join and other actions you can be part of. Here’s a list of Indivisible Protests near you.
#TeslaTakedown. Put in your zip code and find a protest at a Tesla dealer near you. These rallies have been very effective. They’ve gained media attention, and, as I’m sure you’ve heard, Tesla sales and its stock price are down substantially.
50501 is a grassroots organization listing protests organized by independent activists across the nation. It’s promoting the April 5^th event, will link you to protests in your state, and allows you to add a protest to its list of actions.
Mobilize is a clearinghouse for protests and will help you find one near you. It also has online events, phone banking, petitions to sign and other quick actions, groups you can join, and volunteer opportunities.

HEROES OF THE RESISTANCE

The resistance to Trump, Musk, and Republicans is growing. You are all heroes for whatever you’ve contributed to the resistance. There are many heroes, including federal workers who work diligently despite the chaos and threats, as well as those who have resigned or resisted being fired to protest. — Version 1.0.0

The resistance to the Trump administration, Musk and DOGE, and the Republicans in Congress is growing. You are all heroes for whatever actions you’ve contributed to the resistance. There are some heroes that I would like to highlight, including federal workers, some who continue to diligently do their jobs despite the chaos, threats, and demeaning actions of the Trump administration and some who have resigned or resisted being fired to protest.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

The resistance is growing. Thank you for your participation! Thank you for pushing back and supporting the resistance in whatever ways you can, from donating money to in-person protesting to honking or waving in support of protesters you’ve seen. I hope you’re seeing, hearing about, and feeling the resistance from many people in many ways. I hope you’ve contacted your members of Congress to ask them to block or protest onerous actions of the Trump administration.

I hope you’ve participated in, seen, or read about the town hall meetings where both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have gotten strong pushback from their constituents. I imagine you’ve heard that the Republican leaders in Congress have recommended that their members NOT hold town hall meetings because of all the negative feedback they’re getting. That’s the result of all the feedback you and others have been delivering in-person and via all the various communication modes.

You’re all heroes of the resistance!

Another hero is Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, who spoke to Trump directly at the National Prayer Service after his inauguration and asked him to show mercy for immigrants and LGBTQ+ individuals. I hope other religious leaders will call out the inhumanity of many of the actions of the Trump administration. I urge you to ask religious leaders you interact with to stand up and speak out.

I want to highlight for you a few of the heroes in our federal government workforce. But first I’d like to acknowledge and thank every federal worker who’s on the job every day working hard to serve the American people despite the demeaning rhetoric and threats from Trump, Musk, and others. Many of them are working to hold the Trump administration accountable, but unfortunately we will never know about most of them and what they’ve done on our behalf. It’s important to acknowledge that, despite threats and risks, many of them are doing heroic work. It’s good for them to know we’ve got their backs and for us to know they’re pushing back from the inside as we’re pushing back from the outside. See We the builders for more on federal workers and how they and their unions are pushing back.

Nicholas Enrich was the acting assistant administrator for global health at USAID until March 2 when he was abruptly put on leave. He is a hero for working to keep programs functioning despite a workforce slashed from 783 to less than 70. And despite the freeze on funding. Funds were supposedly freed up by temporary waivers from the Secretary of State for lifesaving assistance. Enrich tried repeatedly to make the waivers work but was blocked at every turn.

He and others wrote a series of memos, which became public, documenting what was happening and what the impact would be. Despite his diligent work, Enrich was put on leave. [1]

The memos share estimates that without USAID’s work and funding more than 16 million pregnant women and more than 11 million newborns will not get medical care; more than 14 million children will not get care for pneumonia and diarrhea (among the top causes of preventable deaths for children under the age of 5); 200,000 children will be paralyzed with polio; 1 million children will not be treated for severe malnutrition; and 2.3 million children a year will die because they will not get vaccinated. There will be at least an additional 12.5 million cases of malaria this year, leading to 71,000 to 166,000 avoidable deaths.

USAID leaders estimated there will be a roughly 30% increase in cases of tuberculosis (TB). The increased tuberculosis infections and disruptions to treatment will cause TB to develop drug resistance, making future treatment options more difficult and costly. This will inevitably lead to more cases in the U.S. USAID staff forecast about 80 additional cases of multi-drug-resistant TB in the U.S. each year as a result. These cases will cost the U.S. millions in tax dollars because it costs roughly $500,000 to treat someone with drug-resistant TB.

There are many judges and public prosecutors who are heroes. Among them are U.S. District Judge Amir Ali. He has now ordered the Trump administration four times to pay the $2 billion owed to USAID contractors. U.S. District Judges William Alsup, Amy Berman Jackson, James Bredan, Tanya Chutkan, Jesse Furman, Beryl Howell, and Lauren King are also heroes. [2]

Eight senior prosecutors at the Department of Justice (DOJ) resigned rather than present a motion to dismiss the charges against NY Mayor Eric Adams. Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, led the way by resigning when ordered by deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove to file for dismissal of the case against Adams, apparently in exchange for Adams’s agreement to help the Trump administration implement its anti-immigrant policies. Kevin Briscoll, John Keller, Hagan Scotten, and four others also resigned. [3]

Trump has attempted to fire 18 Inspector Generals (IGs) in various departments of the federal government. At least eight of them have filed suits claiming they were fired illegally. The IGs’ role is explicitly to ensure effective and efficient operation of their agencies by detecting and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse, while making recommendations for enhanced functioning. Their track records are impressive. Here’s a list of some of them and some highlights of their work: [4]

Robert Storch, Dept. of Defense, 281 reports, 970 recommendations, $10.8 billion impact.
Michael Missal, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, 10,000 recommendations, $45 billion impact.
Christi Grimm, Dept. Health and Human Services, 1,300 reports, $18.5 billion impact.
Carde Richardson, Dept. of State, $17 million impact in 8 months.
Sandra Bruce, Dept. of Education, 739 recommendations, $1.2 billion impact.
Larry Turner, Labor Dept., 400 recommendations, $75 billion impact.
Mike Ware, Small Business Administration and acting at the Social Security Administration, $14 billion impact plus $30 billion seized or returned to the U.S. Treasury.
Paul Martin, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), documented the waste of funding and aid, as well as the impaired functioning of USAID, based on Musk’s interference and personnel cuts, among other things.
Phyllis Fong, Dept. of Agriculture, 7,250 reports, $19 billion impact. She refused to leave when fired and had to be dragged from her office. Among other things, she was investigating Musk’s company, Neuralink.

Here’s a quick list of some other heroes: [5]

Denise Cheung, a senior DOJ attorney, resigned after refusing to launch a fraudulent criminal investigation into grantees of an environmental program.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Georgia District Attorney Fani Wills each prosecuted Trump despite threats and personal attacks.
Brian Driscoll, acting FBI Director, and his deputy, Robert Kissane, refused a DOJ order to assist in firing FBI employees who had investigated the January 6 insurrection.
Ellen Weintraub, chair of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), is resisting Trump’s illegal attempt to remove her.
Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistleblowers and enforces the prohibition on federal employees engaging in political activity, is suing Trump for firing him illegally.
Gwynne Wilcox, chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), is suing Trump for illegally firing her. By firing her, Trump made the NLRB unable to function because it lacks the quorum necessary to make decisions. By the way, there are 24 cases against Musk companies pending before the NLRB. (Note: She was recently reinstated by a judge’s ruling.)
And many, many more.

[1] Murphy, B., & Barry-Jester, A. M., 3/3/25, “Internal memos: Senior USAID leaders warned Trump appointees of hundreds of thousands of deaths from closing agency,” ProPublica (https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-rubio-usaid-musk-death-toll-malaria-polio-tuberculosis)

[2] Reich, R., 3/3/25, “The Trump-Vance-Musk-Putin manosphere,” Robert Reich blog (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-trump-vance-musk-putin-manosphere)

[3] Ifill, S., 2/28/25, “When lawyers stand up,” The Contrarian (https://contrarian.substack.com/p/when-lawyers-stand-up)

[4] Rubin, J., 2/14/25, “Undaunted,” The Contrarian (https://contrarian.substack.com/p/undaunted-aea)

[5] Reich, R., 2/13/25, “Profiles in courage,” Robert Reich blog (https://robertreich.substack.com/p/profiles-in-courage)

STOP THE CONTINUING RESOLUTION SPENDING BILL

I’m sorry to be in your inbox again this week, but this is a real emergency.

Please contact your US Senators NOW and ask them to vote against the Continuing Resolution (CR) spending bill that the House Republicans passed. It would fund the federal government until September and avoid a shutdown but has many very objectionable provisions. If you have a Democratic Senator, ask them to filibuster the CR. That’s probably the only way to stop it. Keep in mind that the Republicans are doing a CR because they can’t come up with a regular budget.

Normally, a Continuing Resolution, as the name implies, extends current spending levels but this one slashes most spending, such as a $1 billion in DC (even though it’s local tax dollars and will cut public safety and other vital services), and increases defense spending (there’s more waste, fraud, and abuse in the defense budget than anywhere else in the federal government, so if anything should be cut, defense should be). Furthermore, the CR doesn’t rein in Musk, doesn’t stop illegal firings and withholding of approved funding, and doesn’t block Trump’s tariffs and end the fake “economic emergency” Trump declared that gives him unilateral power to implement tariffs.

Without these provisions, a government shutdown is no worse than what Trump and Musk are already doing. And the CR would explicitly let them continue what they’re doing through next September!

You can find contact information for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

Note that many offices only accept messages on a voice mail system. In most cases, you can call outside of regular business hours and leave a message.

RESISTANCE ACTIONS ON UKRAINE AND TRUMP

ACTION #1: I strongly urge you to contact your US Representative and Senators NOW and ask them to support Ukraine. Here’s a sample message. Feel free to tailor it and put it in your own voice.

Please speak out loudly and clearly, and do everything in your power, to support Ukraine and democracy, while strongly opposing Putin, Russia, and dictators. I’m appalled by Trump’s, Vance’s, and Republicans’ attacks on Ukraine and Zelensky! Their withdrawal of satellite imagery and intelligence support for Ukraine is putting civilian and front lines troops’ lives at greater risk. This is horrifying!

Also, please do everything you can to prevent the Trump administration from lifting economic sanctions on Russia. Lifting them would be very harmful to Ukraine and to the struggle between democracies and autocracies worldwide.

Note that many offices only accept messages on a voice mail system. In most cases, you can call outside of regular business hours and leave a message.

ACTION #2: This is actually three sample messages for President Trump. Feel free to tailor them and put them in your own voice. You can do any one of them, all of them at once, or do them in three separate calls or emails.

President Trump please:

Tell Health and Human Services Secretary Kennedy to work aggressively to stop the measles outbreak and the spread of bird flu. If more people die and egg prices keep going up, you will get hell from me and the American people!
Tell Musk to stop the firings at the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Administration. If those services deteriorate, I and the many other members of the public who rely on those services will be very unhappy, to say the least!
Stop your tariffs, the Republican budget, and Musk’s disruptive actions because if they crash the stock market and the economy, as they appear to be doing, you can be sure that Americans from all walks of life will be quite angry!

You can email President Trump at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ or you can call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111, which is available only on Tuesday through Thursday between 11 am and 3 pm Eastern time.

TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS DO NOT CARE ABOUT MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK BETTER

The Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress are not trying to make government work better. They’re focused on destroying our federal government and making it unable to perform functions we all rely on in our everyday lives. They also plan to give huge tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations. Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to oppose the draconian budget Republicans have proposed.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

I probably don’t need to tell you that the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress are not trying to make government work better. Rather, they want to destroy our federal government and leave it unable to perform functions we all rely on in our everyday lives.

This post will examine the Republicans’ budget proposal. My previous post documented the random slashing of personnel, which does not increase efficiency or make government work better. More examples of this have emerged in recent days. The Trump administration has disbanded the information technology group that was working to make the federal government’s public websites more user-friendly and functional. So, for example, it will no longer be working to make it easier and faster to get a passport from the Department of State or to use the free tax filing service of the IRS. [1] Many cybersecurity personnel from multiple agencies have been fired. Computer systems in the U.S. are not being effectively protected and Russia and other adversaries know this. Moreover, it has been reported that the Trump administration has stopped efforts to counter Russian cyberattacks. [2] Obviously, these actions are not doing anything to make the government more effective and efficient; quite the opposite.

Turning to the budget, the Republicans in Congress have proposed draconian cuts to agency and program budgets. They’ve set dollar-amount targets for cuts that reflect no analysis of need or efficiency. Their budget proposal has big cuts in everything that supports working Americans and their families. However, it includes big increases for defense and immigrant detention and deportation. It also extends and expands the very large 2017 tax cuts for wealthy corporations and individuals, which would cost $4.5 trillion over the next ten years. For example, the wealthiest 1% of Americans, with yearly incomes of over $743,000, would get an annual tax cut averaging $62,000. This is more than the yearly incomes of most of the 72 million people in the US who receive health insurance under Medicaid, many of whom are seniors in nursing homes. And make no mistake about it, Medicaid would have to be cut dramatically to meet the Republicans’ budget targets. [3]

These budget cuts are NOT about cutting waste or fraud; they are about cutting programs that working Americans rely on every day – from health care to nutrition programs to student loans to child and elder care. These deep cuts in programs are being proposed to make the tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations affordable, i.e., to keep them from exploding the budget deficit. Note that the Republicans’ budget proposal does NOT extend the tax credits that make health care more affordable under the Affordable Care Act (aka Obama Care) for 20 million low- and middle-income Americans, including three million small business owners and self-employed individuals. The Republicans’ budget proposal would also shift significant costs to state and local governments – which don’t have the capacity to pay them.

Despite the draconian programmatic cuts, the Republican budget proposal would increase the national debt by $4 trillion in less than two years.

It is abundantly clear that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, along with Musk and DOGE, have no interest in efficiency or making government work better. They want to break our government and turn our democracy into a dictatorship. Moreover, they act like bullies; being cruel and hurting people appears to be one of their goals. Why else would you separate children from parents and post gloating videos of immigrants in chains?

Mindless slashing of agency budgets and staff is harming our safety in multiple ways and weakening our economy. It will increase homelessness, hunger, and hardship for many; it will allow diseases to spread and environmental damage to grow.

I urge you to contact your US Representative and Senators and ask them to take strong action to oppose the draconian budget cuts Republicans are proposing.

If you have members of Congress who are Democrats, urge them to form a shadow cabinet and identify a party spokesperson. These individuals should critique the actions of the Trump administration on a daily basis by:

Identifying what it’s doing right and what it’s doing wrong.
Sharing data and people’s stories to document the damage that’s being done.
Presenting what Democrats would do differently and how people’s lives would be better if Democrats were running the government.

In my next post, I’ll share some profiles in courage of those resisting and good news about how the resistance is growing and proving to be effective.

[1] Hubbell, R., 3/3/25, “Every effort matters – now more than ever!” Today’s Edition Newsletter (Every effort matters—now more than ever!)

[2] Cox Richardson, H., 3/2/25, “Letters from an American,” (March 2, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson)

[3] Parrott, S., 2/25/25, “House budget would increase costs and hardship for many while providing huge tax breaks for a wealthy few,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (https://www.cbpp.org/press/statements/house-budget-would-increase-costs-and-hardship-for-many-while-providing-huge-tax)

TRUMP, DOGE, AND THE REPUBLICANS DO NOT CARE ABOUT EFFICIENCY

The Trump administration, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and the Republicans in Congress do not care about efficiency and making government work better. They are focused on destroying our federal government and making it unable to perform functions we all rely on in our everyday lives. Please contact your members of Congress and ask them to oppose indiscriminate firing of federal workers.

(Note: If you find a post too long to read, please just skim the bolded portions. Thanks for reading my blog!)

I probably don’t need to tell you that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) does not care about efficiency. DOGE and the Trump administration are focused on destroying our federal government and making it unable to perform functions we all rely on in our everyday lives.

They are undermining the agencies and systems that keep us safe, including:

Military and intelligence systems that keep us, our country, and our troops safe from physical and cyber attacks.
Law enforcement agencies that keep us safe from both physical and cyber crime.
Public health agencies that protect us from diseases and unsafe air and water.
Agencies that keep us safe from dangerous consumer products, financial scams, and hazardous working conditions.
The agency that keeps us safe when we fly.

They are undermining everything that makes us a civilized society, and, of course, everything that makes us a democracy, including the health and education systems that allow all of us and our economy to prosper.

Their extensive and random firings of employees with no rationale other than claiming financial savings from reducing the payroll make it clear their intent is destruction and NOT efficiency. The fraudulent nature of their claims of waste is exposed by the situations where they have had to re-hire employees after learning what the employees did. These are NOT thoughtful reductions in the workforce after carefully identifying opportunities for efficiency; this is indiscriminate slashing of the workforce.

Roughly 11% (more than one out of ten) of the 2.4 million federal civilian employees (excluding postal workers) have been fired, have resigned, or have otherwise been relieved of their positions. Most have been relatively new employees within their two-year probationary period. No assessment was made of the need for these workers or of their job performance.

Here are just a few examples (of many) of their destructive firings and forced departures of government workers: [1]

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had 300 employees cut, despite 90% of its facilities having been previously identified as being understaffed. It was already short 3,000 air traffic controllers and at least 800 technicians. The airliner crash in D.C. may have been because air traffic control hadn’t paid enough attention to keeping the military helicopter out of the airspace of the jet that was landing. The more recent close calls in Chicago and D.C., where a plane landing had to abort because there was another plane on or near the runway, almost certainly reflect air traffic control errors.
Workers tracking the bird flu virus were fired and then re-hired.
Workers overseeing the safety of our nuclear weapons were fired and then re-hired. Roughly 300 fired employees at the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) were re-hired after DOGE learned that they were responsible for managing the US nuclear weapons arsenal.
Senior military leaders, including the leaders of the military justice system, were fired and are being replaced with political loyalists. This is not about efficiency; it’s about establishing dictatorial power.
76,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department will be fired. The largest amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government is in the Defense Department, and particularly in its contracts with private companies. Yet this has not been a focus of DOGE. A huge reduction in civilian employees will undoubtedly weaken the oversight of contracts with private companies. Ironically, in the budget outline just approved by Republicans in Congress, the Defense Department receives a significant increase ($100 billion over 10 years in the House’s proposal and $150 billion in the Senate’s)! This makes it unequivocally clear that cutting waste, fraud, and abuse is NOT what Trump, DOGE, and the Republicans are doing.
The Social Security Commissioner has been removed, five of eight regional commissioners have departed, and the plan is to fire half of the 57,000 workers at the Social Security Administration, despite it already being at a 50 year low in its number of employees. How long will it be before Social Security is unable to enroll new eligible seniors, to stop payments to those who have passed away, to resolve problems, and even, ultimately, to keep payments flowing to current recipients?
Over a dozen senior leaders and 1,000 of the 17,000 employees (6%) at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are gone, despite pre-existing personnel shortages. Many of its most experienced disaster recovery leaders are gone, with hurricane season arriving shortly.
Over a dozen Inspectors General and the director of the office that protects whistleblowers have been fired. These offices were specifically established to root out waste and fraud in government, so this is clearly NOT an effort to increase efficiency. It can only be seen as an effort to allow waste and fraud that benefits Trump, Musk, members of the administration, and their cronies.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been shut down. This is clearly NOT an effort to increase efficiency. It can only be seen as an effort to allow fraud and abusive financial practices that benefit Trump, Musk, and large banks, credit card, and financial companies.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its 15,000 employees will be cut by 65%.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has lost 1,000 workers. Its weather, marine, and storm forecasts are essential to all Americans. It also operates the two U.S. tsunami warning centers and staff there have been fired.
The Small Business Administration has had 20% of its staff cut (720 people).
USAID has been shut down and on and on.

It is abundantly clear that the Trump administration, Musk, DOGE, and Republicans in Congress have no interest in efficiency or making government work better. They want to break our government and turn our democracy into a dictatorship. Mindlessly slashing hundreds of thousands of government workers is harming our safety in multiple ways and weakening our economy. It is increasing unemployment and the number of people who will need public assistance because they can’t pay the rent, afford health care, or pay for food and medicine. It reduces what these former government employees pay in taxes and contribute to the economy through their everyday spending.

I urge you to contact your US Representative and Senators and ask them to take action to stop the indiscriminate firing of government workers. You can find contact information for your US Representative at http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and for your US Senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

[1] Cox Richardson, H., 2/27/25, “Letters from an American,” (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-27-2025)