“(Trump officials) are really highly at risk for things blowing up in their faces, whether it’s a terrorist attack because they don’t have enough spies at CIA, or it’s a terrible, food-borne illness because they don’t have enough people at CDC, there’s a lot of places where things could blow up.”
— Elaine Kamarck, Reno Gazette Journal, Feb. 22.
President Donald Trump began his second term promising to streamline government. He appointed the world’s richest man, co-President Elon Musk, to start firing government employees. Musk proved he has no interest in investigating which jobs are essential or not by his actions at the CPAC Conference on Feb. 20.
Musk waved a chainsaw in the air and shouted, “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.” The crowd cheered, showing their lack of understanding about what government agencies do. A chainsaw is indiscriminate. To eliminate positions and agencies, careful analysis is required, not wholesale slaughter.
Musk claims he is firing non-essential or poorly performing employees. In reality, his “assistants” (young, inexperienced people themselves) are picking people who have been in government service for less than two years, since these probationary employees have fewer protections.
Many of these employees have exemplary records and are doing essential work. Since Musk has no idea how government actually works, he doesn't know which jobs are essential or not. Two examples were the firing of the people in charge of our nuclear weapons and those doing research into eliminating bird flu.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scrambling to rehire ‘several’ fired employees who play a key role in the agency’s response to bird flu, the agency has acknowledged. NBC News first reported the story, quoting a USDA spokesperson as saying the firings were accidental ... The firing error was not the first attributed to DOGE. The administration last weekend rescinded firings of hundreds at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.” (Reno Gazette Journal, Feb. 20)
Other agencies which have had mass firings are the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the TSA, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Federal Aviation Administration, all agencies which exist to protect the American people.
In Nevada, we will be feeling the disastrous effects of these cuts in many areas. For example, Great Basin National Park had a large portion of staff cut. This will hurt the park and devastate the local economy.
Another consequence will be the lack of fire suppression efforts in our forests. Erikka Olson was one of 2,000 Forest Service workers fired by Musk. She said, “I’m honestly pretty terrified of this upcoming fire season.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., supports this concern. “What they are doing is just going through haphazardly and recklessly letting people go in the middle of a fire season, when we see how bad these fires are across the West.… It really is mismanagement at its worst, and it’s going to have a devastating impact for states like Nevada.” (Reno Gazette Journal, Feb. 23)
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and other Western Democratic senators sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior about the dangers raised by firing so many Forest Service and National Park personnel.
Even Republican Rep. Mark Amodei is unhappy with this process. In a conversation about these firings, Amodei said “he finds executive orders a lazy way to make changes, and he thinks Elon Musk’s government efficiency team DOGE - which he pointedly pronounced ‘Doggy’ - isn’t working smart.” (Reno Gazette Journal, Feb. 19)
Republicans say they want government run like a business, but that’s not government’s role. For anyone who doubts that, read the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which summarizes the purpose of government. Nowhere does it say that government should be run like a business.
Businesses are created to sell goods and services and make profits. Governments are created to serve the people. As President Abraham Lincoln said, “The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but cannot do, at all, or cannot, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities.”
To serve the people, we need government workers who know what they are doing and who are allowed to do their jobs. Having ignorant people looking over their shoulders and threatening them with dismissal is not the best way to serve the American people.
If this continues, it may take decades to fix the damage inflicted by Trump and Musk.
Jeanette Strong, whose column appears every other week, is a Nevada Press Foundation award-winning columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.