The incompetence of these people knows no bounds. Whether it's running an economy or conducting a military operation, the Trump Administration is putting American lives in danger. But don’t for a minute think their stupidity will save us. While their ineptitude will hurt people all on its own, this level of amateurishness shouldn’t cover up their larger intentions. They do mean to destroy the government and economy in order to privatize services and further enrich themselves. They do mean to destroy geopolitical stability in order to create a world order that structurally benefits them alone—more than it already does. It’s a zero-sum game to them, and the cost is freedom, democracy, and just our ordinary, daily wellbeing. They might be ignorant, but don’t be fooled. - Stacey
3 Big Things
1️⃣ It’s not efficiency and it’s not saving money 🐕❌
The propaganda titled DOGE—or the Department of Government Efficiency—is costing money (not to mention taking a toll on wellbeing and mental health—which also costs money). Firing massive swaths of people without any regard to performance, productivity, efficiency, or even job duties doesn’t improve government output; it breaks it. This is by design. DOGE is not meant to help make government better; it’s meant to dismantle government and sell it to the private sector.
Furthermore—and some Democrats need to listen up—this isn’t how saving money works. If you cut $1 million from a government agency and claim you saved a million dollars, that’s just bad math. Depending on the program, the loss of that public service could cost magnitudes more in lost investment and opportunity cost. These people are stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Musk’s current cuts could cost Americans trillions in the long run.
2️⃣ Tariffs on? Tariffs off? The damage is done. 📉💸
Trump’s threat of tariffs and the on-again-off-again-on-again chaos cause almost the same amount of damage as if they were permanent. Businesses can’t plan, hire, trade, or build under such intense uncertainty. That also means more pain and fear for workers and families as well as whole industries and communities.
There’s also a doublethink occurring with tariffs. MAGA claims they are a bargaining tool in negotiations with other countries; they also claim tariffs will help decrease the federal deficit by creating new revenue. But they can’t be both. Either you use them as a weapon for ulterior motives, or you put them in place with the hopes of generating enough revenue to balance the budget. Additionally, tariffs won’t generate enough income. Most economists say any increased tax revenue from tariffs will be offset by economic losses elsewhere due to disruption caused by, well, tariffs.
3️⃣ An omelet? In this economy? 🥚💳
70% of U.S. GDP is consumer spending, roughly. Meaning this economy runs on everyday Americans being able to afford life.
$18 Trillion. That’s about how much personal debt exists in the U.S. economy—an all-time high. This includes credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc.
42 Million people owe a combined total of nearly $1.6 trillion in student loans—that’s second only to mortgage debt. And 10 million are behind on payments.
-28.2%. That’s the one-year drop in consumer sentiment. It came with a 12-year low in short-term expectations—think mid-Great Recession recovery. Concerns were driven by (pull out your Bingo cards, please) returning inflation, fears of recession, uncertainty, tariffs, and all that personal debt.
These numbers are meant to illustrate a point: The U.S. economy is built on American workers, but it has not been built for them in quite some time. Progressives warned about income and wealth inequality for decades. Drastic improvements were needed for the country’s long-term economic and political health—bold moves away from policies that left workers frustrated for decades.
Now, a breaking point has arrived. With all the ineptitude of this administration and its disregard for the working class, regular people won’t be able to scaffold the economy anymore. Moreover, the uncertainty and chaos is both a function of the Trump Administration’s incompetence and a feature of their intent—they both don’t care if they break things by accident and they also hope things will break. Financial desperation is a tool used by authoritarians to build distrust in democratic institutions, foment anger, and further seize power.
Featured this week
When malice meets incompetence — What the Signal Scandal showed us is that these people are both “ideologically calculating and dangerously reckless. This isn’t just ignorance; this is intent.”
Ten Terrifying Economic Numbers — What we are seeing in the economy and what it means for American workers.
Sen. Chris Murphy as Minority Leader? — DisRev Readers have spoken. It came down to Murphy and (you guessed it) Bernie. Tell us why.
Editor’s Note:
Each week when we set out to write the “3 Big Things,” we start with no fewer than a dozen. From there, the list is narrowed down by urgency, theme, and a guiding sense of what our readers should know or remember.
Every time, a lot of important information hits the cutting room floor. And every time, we think, “Let’s save these other ones for a slow news week” (ha) or “Let’s publish these next week; they are too important to hold any longer,” only to then be inundated with an avalanche of headlines and events.
It’s felt like we should be publishing the “3 Big Things” daily. (Maybe someday.) My first solo essay for DisRev is basically a list of ‘Big Things’ that kept coming up but never made the cut (because of… well… gestures at the chaos). We are all just trying to keep up. You’re doing great. Yours in Revolution - Álio
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." —Isaac Asimov
Great observations with insightfully conclusive analysis, equals recommended writing. Thanks for highlighting their reckless malevolence and disregard for humanity.
Trump and, now Musk represent poster boys of a growing boldness of the movement of ignorant savantism in America that has always been a single type of (but often dismissed) American style. This is why I named my music project such - to get the word out there. https://soundcloud.com/theignorantsavants
This approach to the world may seem brilliant to the untrained eye or ear (which is the point), but is no better than randomness. It’s like saying that injecting bleach might kill COVID in the body without killing the body. It’s like saying that tariffs will save the economy by destroying it for all working people because the wealthy survive.