Elon Musk and his band of DOGE hackers were brought on board early in the Trump administration to focus on making the government more efficient and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. They slashed and burned their way through multiple government agencies leaving a trail of destruction, confusion, and demoralization, not to mention a plethora of lawsuits, some of which are still going on. However, the DOGE hounds never actually put the White House and Trump in their crosshairs. The result is that Trump is being fiscally irresponsible with taxpayer dollars the same way he was irresponsible in his businesses that led to six bankruptcies.
No one should kid themselves that Trump’s policies, Executive Orders and decisions come without actual costs in taxpayer dollars. ICE is the first thing that comes to mind. The budget for ICE in 2024 was $8.7 billion. With Trump’s push for his hardline immigration policies and with the acquiescence of the weak-kneed Republican congress, the budget for ICE increased to $75 billion. That amount, by the way, is larger than the military budgets of all but a few countries. The increase in $67 billion could help a lot of American families. Instead, it is being used to terrorize communities across the country.
Trump’s tariffs devastated farmers across the country because former markets like China for soybeans were shutdown. In response, Trump offered up $12 billion in taxpayer dollars to help these farmers. He created a problem and then he spent $12 billion of OUR money to help solve that problem.
It costs about $8 – $10 million/day to operate an aircraft carrier battle group like the one deployed to the Caribbean to kill alleged drug smugglers and ultimately kidnap Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro. That battle group has been in the Caribbean for a couple of months now and at $10 million/day, that’s a cool $600 million of our tax dollars spent on what is ultimately a quest for oil. Instead of reimbursing the US for these costs, Trump sold some of the confiscated oil for $500 million and parked it in an offshore account in Qatar. Whether you agree or disagree with the strikes on Venezuela, the money seems like it should belong to the US taxpayers rather than sitting in a bank in Qatar under the control of DJT.
And who the hell is going to pay the bill for buying Greenland? If that were ever come to pass or if Trump decides to take it by force, the cost to American tax payers would be huge either from an outright purchase which is unlikely or the devastating cost of an invasion and a rupture in the NATO alliance.
Trumps tariffs are yet another example of being fiscally irresponsible with OUR money. The tariffs are a tax on the American businesses and subsequently on American people. Costs have risen almost across the board. According to the nonprofit, independent, Kiel Institute for World Economy almost 96% of the $200 billion raked in by the Customs Service as a result of the tariffs has been passed on to American consumers. This is one of the largest tax increases in history. Does anyone recall something about ‘taxation without representation.’?
There is little doubt in my mind that this administration is the most morally bankrupt and corrupt administration in my lifetime due to its continued attack on the Constitution, the Rule of Law and just basic moral decency. However, beyond there being a cost on the psyche of every citizen in this country, there are actual dollars and cents costs. The simple fact it, the Trump administration is a money pit. Despite all the rhetoric about reducing government spending, the Trump administration is frittering away billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars solving problems that it has created (ICE, farm economy) or chasing after things that most Americans don’t want (attack on Venezuela, lusting after Greenland). Even today, the stock market is set to tank because of Trump’s ongoing threats to Greenland. Those are real dollars in people’s retirement and investment accounts.
In the same way that Trump believes the Department of Justice, the FBI and the newly named Department of War are his personal playthings, he also believes the treasure trove of taxpayer dollars are his personal slush fund to do with as he wishes. Trump ran almost every business he has had into the ground and filed for bankruptcy six times leaving a wake of bad debts and stiffed contractors. People should understand their tax dollars are being frittered away into the Trump money pit and those are tax dollars that will never be recovered. The American taxpayers will be left holding the bag for all of Trump’s follies the same way his banks and contractors were left holding the bag for his failed businesses.
