Not content with trashing federal workers’ rights, Republican President Donald Trump—who as a young New York developer violated federal fair and open housing laws—wants to roll back the civil rights revolution, too.
Not only that, but a separate Trump executive order fires at least 17 key watchdogs—independent Inspectors General at various agencies. That move opens the way to widespread fraud by the corporate class unseen since, well, the first Trump government, which began eight years ago and lasted four years.
So far, the responses to the Trump edicts have ranged from scattershot to verbal screams with promises for future action to, in the case of the IGs, inaction by then-Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.
Some workers and unions are already fighting back against Trump’s orders, however.
The Government Employees (AFGE) marched into court in D.C., accompanied by the Teachers/AFT and two good-government groups, two days after the inauguration. They’re suing Trump over the schemes of his “Department of Government Efficiency,” headed by multibillionaire Elon Musk, to meet behind closed doors, with no accountability, to arbitrarily cut hundreds of thousands of workers.
“We’re part of this new lawsuit because DOGE must come out of the shadows & comply with the law before the sweeping, self-serving plans of billionaires upend the federal government and cause irreparable damage in the lives of working people,” Teachers President Randi Weingarten tweeted.