Trump continues to dismantle the federal government

On March 14, Trump reversed 18 of President Biden’s executive orders and directives focused on gender, labor policies and industry regulations. On the same day, he directed seven government entities to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The targeted agencies were The US Agency for Global Media (the parent company of Voice of America), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the US Interagency Council of Homelessness, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (which helps expand economic opportunity in underserved communities), and the Minority Business Development Agency. The US Agency for Global Media also oversees Radio Free Asia, which broadcasts and publishes for audiences in Asia and is seen as a way to combat Chinese propaganda in the region. Not unexpectedly, reporters at Voice of America were placed on “administrative leave with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified,” the next day according to an internal memo.

Apparently, Trump didn’t think that sounded creepy enough, so he decided to resurrect the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was last used in WWII to arrest and put Americans of Japanese descent in internment camps. The law requires that the US be at war or under invasion in order to be used (but Trump never did like to read). The ACLU and Democracy forward sued when Trump and Secretary of State Rubio used the Alien Enemies Act to order the detention of five Venezuelans without due process, claiming they were members of the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Agua, which has been designated a terrorist group. US District Judge James Boasberg granted a restraining order directing that the Venezuelans must be released until a hearing scheduled in two weeks. Nevertheless, Trump and Rubio persevered and the next day deported hundreds of Venezuelans whom they said were gang members. The judge verbally ordered Trump to have the plane turn back back but Trump declared that the plane had taken off before the judge’s order and by the time he ordered that it turn around it was already out of US jurisdiction. Judge Boasberg was not pleased. To date, the Administration has still not provided the judge with flight logs to show this timeline and disputed the authority of a verbal order from the bench. As this fight has continued, both sides have been losing patience with Judge Boasberg chastising Justice Department attorneys for their interpretations and delays. Trump then wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge” was a troublemaker and should be impeached. This caught the attention of Chief Justice John Roberts who issued a rare public statement on March 18: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.” Unfazed by this warning, a Republican, Rep. Brandon Gill (Texas), introduced a resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg the same day.

In case you are still not creeped out, again on March 14, Trump pulled the security clearances of attorneys at New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (Paul Weiss), and restricted their employees from entering government buildings and receiving funds from federal contracts.  He also limited government employees from engaging with the firm’s workers while in official capacity. This is the third law firm that has worked on cases that either investigated Trump or helped Democrats. In one of those cases so far a federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order. More on this later.

Adding to the notion that Trump has little intention of paying attention to court orders, after US District Judge William Alsop required the Administration to reinstate probationary employees fired in February at the VA, Agriculture , Defense, Energy, Interior and Treasury Departments, Trump filed an appeal. The appeals court declined to block the order requiring the Administration to reinstate the workers pending any further appeals. Not to be outdone, when the federal employees returned to their jobs they were immediately placed on paid leave. This performance was repeated when another judge ordered some 24,000 workers at 18 agencies back to work on March 17.

Wait, it gets creepier. It’s not bad enough that Harvard is implementing a hiring freeze due to financial “uncertainties” in federal policy. And Johns Hopkins University announced it is letting go of 2,000 workers due to federal aid cuts. Worse is the cancellation of $400,000 in federal grants to Columbia University due to the university’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education and the U.S. General Services Administration said in a joint statement on March 7. But it gets worse. On March 21, the Wall Street Journal reported that Columbia agreed to all of Trump’s “far-reaching” demands so that it may negotiate the return of its federal grants. See the article in The Hill for the concessions and full story (The WSJ has a paywall). Along the same lines, on March 21, the New York Times reported that the firm of Paul Weiss also bowed to Trump and agreed to $40 million in pro bono work on issues Trump has championed (the firm had $2.63 billion in revenue last year), including a task force on antisemitism “and other mutually agreed projects.” According to the White House, the firm committed to stop using diversity, equity and inclusion policies. There has been a good deal of of backlash from other lawyers about the chilling effect of the Paul Weiss deal.

And one more to add to the list, again not unexpected. On March 20, Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of the Department of Education to do all she can to shut down the department. The department’s “useful fiunmctions…will be preserved” he said, noting that they will be transferred to other departments (e.g., Pell Grants, programs for students wit disabilities, etc.). The Department of Education was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979..

Enough of that. The good news—protests are getting larger. Over 500 people showed up in Hudson on March 15 to protest cuts in federal programs. Another nationwide protest is planned by 50501 (50 states, 50 capitals, one day) on April 5. Protests have been shown to work. The more people who show up at one rally the more who show up at the next. When enough people show up, dictatorships fall apart.