Op/Ed
Editorial: Trump’s reckless chaos

ANGELO LYNN
When Trump issued his ill-considered order to freeze federal funding for thousands of programs across the country, it’s unlikely he and his team didn’t realize it would cause chaos, havoc and fear for millions of Americans. Why Trump and his advisors knowingly want to cause such chaos is what Americans should ponder and assess, sooner rather than later, and determine whether this president is one Americans choose to follow.
That is particularly true for Americans who supported him.
Nowhere in his campaign did he suggest shutting down funding for the programs he put under threat in his half-baked missive Monday night.
According to Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark, who announced Tuesday that Vermont would join 22 other states to challenge Trump’s Office of Management & Budget order, the federal freeze would stop funding that Congress has already approved “for programs such as: WIC, a nutrition program for pregnant parents and infants; Head Start, providing preschool and support services for low-income children and their families; LIHEAP, providing home energy assistance for households that struggle to stay warm through the winters; a Medicare enrollment assistance program; school meals for low-income students; programs supporting homeless veterans reintegrating into our communities; programs that help victims of domestic violence seek support making safety plans and exit unsafe situations; and programs supporting refugees who have already arrived in our communities, by providing clothing, household goods, and rent assistance, as well as English classes and job placement.”
Adding to that, several state officials told The New York Times that funding for preschools, community health centers, food for low-income families, housing assistance and disaster relief was at risk, and universities were freezing new research grants.
To be clear, Trump’s budget office tried to specify that the order targeted “DEI, woke Marxist gender ideology and the Green New Deal,” but it was so poorly crafted that it froze an estimated $3 trillion in federal funding for necessary programs across the country.
As Vermont’s congressional delegation stated with appropriate disgust, Trump’s order was not just outrageous, it’s an unconstitutional violation of Congress’s power of the purse.
By mid-day Wednesday, Trump and his White House realized they had created major chaos without a winning strategy and withdrew the order. Poof. Just like that. Sorry for the confusion and trouble we caused, they said in effect, we screwed up; just forget we mentioned it!
Americans should not be kind in their criticism of Trump’s tactics. That’s because unless there is public outcry about such shoddy governance, he’ll continue to assault government services and, importantly, mischaracterize the changes the electorate voted for.
Post-election polls were clear that lowering prices on food and everyday consumables was the public’s top priority in the election, and that most Americans favored Biden’s push under the Green New Deal. A much smaller number of Americans took issue with Democrats seemingly putting DEI initiatives (what the GOP branded as a “woke ideology”) front and center, but to go on a federal purge to deliberately discriminate against those Americans who might have benefitted from DEI policies is beyond the pale.
Nor are DEI policies just aimed at the LGBTQ community. For Americans who only know what DEI means according to Trump’s perverted rhetoric, a quick review is helpful. According to a Tuesday report by ABC News, “DEI has its roots in the 1960s anti-discrimination legislative movement when laws like the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 addressed labor issues based on protected classes. Companies had to comply with these anti-discrimination laws, and the DEI movement stems from these efforts to continue creating equitable workplaces and schools.”
Do Trump supporters really want to roll back the equal employment rights given to women, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, those with disabilities, and older Americans? Do Republicans really object to exposing blatant employment discrimination against the LBGTQ community?
Not likely. Rather, there’s a big difference in the national politic between not pushing a “woke ideology” in everyone’s face (as some liberal Democrats have done), and deliberately discriminating against them as Trump and his mean-spirited administration has set out to do.
But this is what Americans will get with Trump. We saw it several days earlier with his unconstitutional order to reject birthright citizenship.
He sows chaos wherever and however it suits him. Why? To press advantage where he can — and, if he’s successful, he sets precedent by cowering a Republican Congress that’s too gutless to stand up for their own constitutional powers.
It is, however, notable that he was forced so quickly to rescind the federal freeze on funding with hardly a fight. The opposition roared its disapproval, he saw the writing on the wall and backed down. The lesson is that strong opposition to his half-baked ideas can flip the script. That’s particularly important pertaining to the crucial climate change initiatives implemented by President Biden and which Trump seems intent on disbanding simply to undue Biden’s accomplishments. What Wednesday’s action may show is that if the public outcry is significant, and Trump is left without a reasonable response, it’s a good bet he’ll back down. Not even Trump, after all, wants history to define him as the idiot president who ruined it all.
The challenge for the resistance, on each issue, is to prove that point and to convince Trump his image would be forever tainted if his actions set the nation backward. Change is welcome, but don’t undo the progress that benefits the country — and don’t do things that make America’s future worse.
Angelo Lynn
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