Shock and Awful

While everyone expected Trump II: Trump’s Revenge to get off to a quick start, it’s still been a bit breathtaking to see just how fast and how far his enshittification of the federal government has already spread.

The assault has burst forth across multiple fronts. This is, as the villains have monologued to us, a deliberate attempt to “flood the zone” and overwhelm opponents in a “shock and awe” approach reminiscent of the opening days of the War in Iraq. (Because, of course, that is a model you’d want to emulate.)

The president has set the pace himself, signing an unprecedented number of executive orders in his first two weeks in office. Despite his repeated insistence that he didn’t know anything about Project 2025 and the arsenal of executive orders that its creators had crafted, Trump has in fact signed a considerable number of those exact proposals.

These executive orders touch on a sweeping array of subjects, ranging from bigoted assaults on transgender rights and a broad array of civil rights measures they’re dismissing as “DEI” initiatives to sweeping changes in policies on abortion, climate change, education, energy, the border, etc etc.

While many of these moves will surely be litigated — the blanket effort to freeze all federal funding, in direct contravention to the Constitution, has already been halted by the courts — the flurry of executive orders has already succeeded at its most important task: sowing chaos and confusion.

Trump’s tariff tantrum is another prime example here, with his mind-bogglingly bad idea to slap 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada plus 10% on China already leading to significant blowback from our erstwhile allies and plenty of panic inside America too. (Markets have only been open for a half hour as I write this, but the Dow’s already dropped more than 600 points.) More confusion, more chaos.

The most alarming development, of course, has been this weekend’s assault on federal agencies by Musk’s minions at the idiotically named “Department of Government Efficiency.” Against all odds and any kind of logic, a small group of recent high school graduates — including one who recently went by the name “Big Balls” — have seized control of the Treasury Department’s payments system, have locked senior officials at the Office of Personnel Management out of their system, and have bragged about shutting down completely the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as well.

All of this seems unwise; much seems to be illegal as well. But it’s happening, and that means more confusion, more chaos.

So what can be done?

While a few Congressional Democrats have taken admirable stances, most of them seem to be hiding under a pile of coats, deciding that their best move is to wait it out on the assumption that “Trump will screw up,” as Senate Minority Leader [sic] Chuck Schumer yawned in a recent interview.

It’s clear that, unless and until they feel pressure from their base, most of them will remain useless here. So it’s up to all of us to demand our representatives actually, you know, represent us here.

Call your representative and both your senators. No matter where you live, no matter who they are. Call them.

Demand that Senate Democrats use the tools at their disposal to make demands on the administration and delay as much as possible. There are still several important confirmation hearings — notably Bondi as attorney general, Patel for FBI director, and Vought for OMB director — and Senate Democrats need to stretch these out to the limit to highlight these nominees’ extreme views and make demands for letting the confirmation vote happen. (As suggested here, one obvious demand would be that Bondi promise to appoint a special counsel to investigate a lot of the fakery I’ve detailed above.)

Demand that House Democrats do all they can to publicize the Trump regime’s wave of chaos and confusion. Simply showing up at a federal agency with cameras in tow and demanding answers is a time-honored tactic and one that some House members are now starting to use. Tell yours to join in.

And if you’re represented by Republicans? Call them too! Remind them of the costs of Trump’s trade war on your region and that they’ll soon own the economic disaster that’s coming, remind them that their moves at the Department of Education will have real impact on your schools and your kids, remind them that any damage to Social Security or the VA or whatever is on their heads now. Don’t let them slink away.

Call them all. Call their DC office, but more important, call all their local ones too. Call early, call often. Be polite, but be persistent.

Remember, the whole point of this is that the Trump team wants us to feel overwhelmed, to feel powerless, to feel that no pushback is practical or possible.

To hell with that.