Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised by the things Trump has done in his first month in office.  I have my major criticisms such as his desire for higher tariffs and some of his disturbing comments about taking over Gaza.

I also don’t completely agree with the methods of trying to downsize the federal government, but I’m also not sure how else it could be done.

I understand the reasoning behind ordering federal employees back to the office.  There is a perception that there are all of these government employees sitting at home collecting a paycheck.  And while that might be true for some, it isn’t true for all.  Plus, having to provide office space just increases expenses for the taxpayers.

I am also not sure about firing all federal government employees who are on probation.  This can just mean that they were recently hired for their position and haven’t had a review.  It is costly to hire and train new people, and we also don’t know that the new person is any worse than someone who has been there for 30 years.  In fact, the government employee who has been there for 30 years might be more bureaucratic than the new person in some cases.

If we are talking about getting rid of IRS workers, I’m all for it.  Of course, even there, you need someone to process the tax refunds this season.

I don’t want to wait twice as long at the passport office because they are understaffed.  If you are getting rid of a passport requirement to travel, that’s fine, but I don’t think that proposal is on the table.

So, in some ways, I think this attempt to downsize the federal government is chaotic.  Of course, not doing anything and allowing it to stay the course is more chaotic.

Some Sympathy

Now that some federal workers are being laid off, we get to hear sob stories from the establishment media. For example, we might hear about a single mom who found out on Valentine’s Day that she lost her job and will have trouble paying her bills soon.  Of course, there are many people who get laid off every day from jobs that aren’t government jobs and we aren’t usually treated to the sad stories on television.

The thing that really irritates me is that the people who are calling attention to these stories now mostly didn’t have a word to say when people were getting fired for not getting a shot in their arm in 2021 and 2022.  There were tens of thousands of people who were good and productive workers, yet they got fired because of vaccine mandates for “vaccines” that didn’t even stop transmission of what it was supposed to prevent.

Just remember that every time someone is shedding a tear for other people who were laid off because of DOGE.  Did that same person shed a tear for all of the people fired for disobeying the Biden handlers’ mandates?

With that said, I don’t think we should be insensitive to people being laid off now.  Most people who work in government are not part of the ruling elite.  They found a job, probably with good benefits, and they probably do what they are supposed to do.  We shouldn’t cheer on the fact that they lost their job.  We should only cheer on that the taxpayer will save money by the government not doing things that it shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.

Can We Accept a Win?

Even though I have my criticisms of Trump and Musk, can any libertarian possibly imagine a better first month from any administration?

I can’t even imagine a libertarian getting in office and doing this much in such a short time frame.

There are some self-identified libertarians who are critical of Trump and Musk and saying that they should go through the proper channels with Congress.

Maybe that is the preferred method, but we all know what would happen.  Let’s say they tell Congress, “Please pass some legislation to allow us to look into the money that is being spent by USAID and other organizations.”  Maybe they’ll get around to it someday after you’re gone.

Many of the executive orders coming from Trump are undoing things that were already put in place by the executive branch.  Some of it is repealing stuff that is blatantly unconstitutional.

Congress has to pass legislation to fund all of these alphabet agencies, but they are really under the executive branch.  It is kind of a joke for anyone to suggest that we need legislation in order to look at where money is being spent.  That’s our money.

Ron Paul tried for many years to get an audit of the Fed.  Now, Elon Musk and company are talking about just doing it, along with checking to see if there is gold stored at Fort Knox.  Why would anyone complain about this other than because they just hate Trump or they have something to hide?

What Would You Do?

You can’t beat something with nothing.  If you are supposed to be on the side of liberty and you are criticizing Trump and Musk for all of this exposure of corrupt government spending, then what would you do?

If you were given the keys to the White House, what would you do?  Would you beg Congress to please audit some of these agencies?  Would you beg Congress to please start cutting the funding in the next fiscal year?

This is a serious question.  Our tax money is not just being wasted but used against us.  Our money is being used to degrade our culture, to punish people not obedient to the system, and to propagandize us.

I seriously doubt that anyone could have done a better job than Elon Musk and his team have done in the last month in exposing the highly corrupt spending.  Again, this is all of our money that was taken from us.

If you want to send your money to media companies overseas, be my guest.  If you want to fund diversity programs and transgender comic books in foreign countries (or at home), go for it.  But don’t take other people’s money by force to do it.

If Rand Paul had become president on January 20, 2025, would we be any farther ahead than we are right now?  Maybe we wouldn’t have the tariff nonsense, but it is hard to believe that anyone would have uncovered as much as what has been uncovered in the first month.

This is a sincere question if you are highly critical of Trump and Musk.  What would you do?  I don’t want to hear that you would go through Congress because you might as well say that you would do nothing.

Some people just never want to accept a win.  One year ago, could anyone have realistically expected this much government waste and corruption to be uncovered in such a short period of time?