So much is happening every day that I wanted to give you my overview of the most important events of the last 48 hours of these unprecedented times.
Team MAGA
Trump is making it clearer every day that he intends to proceed without any regard for laws passed by Congress that tell how a president is supposed to do his job.
Trump has given Elon Musk access to the program that controls all government disbursements. Elon Musk doesn’t work for the government and hasn’t been appointed or confirmed by the Senate. It is unprecedented in US history for a non-governmental employee to be in control of a major governmental function. David Lebryk, a long-term career Treasury Department official, has resigned over Musk’s control of the payment system.
DEFINITION: As many of you know, the federal government has two kinds of civil servants. The top layer are political appointees, and they often are changed when a new administration comes in. They have no guarantee of continued employment. Trump is entitled to fire any of these political appointees, but Trump doesn’t seem to consider whether the government is losing a great deal of experience and talent.
In contrast to this upper level, 99% of government employees are career civil servants. This means they are not policy makers and simply carry out the instructions of political appointees. They can only be fired for cause— in other words their bad behavior must be detailed, and they must be given a chance to correct their deficiencies before they are fired.
Trump is now breaking the law by firing these people without stating cause. Some employees are being fired because they worked on DEI projects, some are being fired because they attended DEI training, some are being fired because they helped prosecute the Jan 6 rioters or worked for Jack Smith as he prosecuted Trump.
Understandably, some of these career civil servants are choosing to resign when they learn that they will be fired to preserve their retirement benefits.
TEAM US
TEAM US stands for Team United States or Team Us (you and I).
Every career civil servant fired by Trump can sue for wrongful termination, because Trump did not follow the specified procedure. First, they submit their case to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an independent agency that oversees and protects the rights of federal employees. If the employee is not satisfied with the MSPB's decision, they can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
So, the first step is to go to an administrative court. It may take weeks or months to reach a decision while the country is hanging in the wind. It is only after the MSPB issues a ruling that the case can go to the US court of Appeals. It is in the court that the real power lies—the power to an issue an injunction to the Trump Administration to stop the irregular firings of career civil servants.
Why is it so important to stop the firing of civil servants? The federal government does hundreds of things that facilitate our lives that we won’t miss until they are gone. Project 2025 thought the federal government should stop weather forecasting. Although private weather prediction can give us a second opinion, it is nice to have the National Weather Service providing a baseline. Another example is my niece, who is a recent PhD who works for the Federal government in the area of water pollution. My guess is that the Trump Administration might think we have too many people pointing out water pollution.
Thus, unless I am mistaken it looks like we can’t just jump into court on the firing of civil servants. It might take us weeks or months for us to push back effectively in this area.
The second big issue that TEAM US is facing is Musk’s control of the Treasury payment system. This is clearly an illegal situation, but it may be tricky to take it to court. To sue you must have standing. You must identify a person who has suffered a specific damage because of an illegal act. I don’t think it’s good enough to say that millions of us are suffering extreme mental distress because Musk is in control of the federal payment system. Some have suggested that we all have been harmed because Musk has access to our Social Security numbers.
However, I hope there are dozens of lawyers consulting at this moment to find a person or organization with standing to sue over Musk’s control of the Treasury disbursements. If lawyers can get this into court, I predict that a judge will instantly enjoin Musk’s role in running the Treasury.
Remember, we have won two major court battles so far: birthright citizenship and impoundment. We have very smart lawyers on our side.
We are going to learn, the hard way, is how much we depend on the federal government in ways we don't know.
As an example. Most of what FEMA does, is plan for disasters. They literally plan for disasters in every part of the country. They prepare for communications during a disaster. They contract with vendors in advance for food and water delivery. They contract for relief centers. They research and prepare for every type of disaster including plans for each different possible chemical spill or toxic fire. They prepare for things I could not even conceive of. And in every location in the whole country.
Most plans will never be used, and that is a good thing. But without them, the disasters, as bad as they are, will become exponentially worse.
The work that FEMA does when a disaster occurs, is minimal compared to the planning work. Someone like Musk could easily cut half the funding for FEMA and we would never feel the effect until some disaster occurred, that FEMA had not planned for. It could be 5 or 10 years.
The National Weather Service has been under threat from AccuWeather for years. The owner covets the data provided free of charge to the public. Trump's administration through Project 2025 is basically a Private Equity group parting out the government to the highest bidder or just handing it out to private companies.