
Tom Swarbrick 4pm - 7pm
23 January 2025, 15:27
The velocity of change here in the US is simultaneously unprecedented, dizzying and breathtaking.
On Wednesday, only Donald Trump’s second full day back in the Oval Office, his administration ordered civil servants to rat on any colleagues who might still be pursuing Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI) strategies, in contravention of the President’s orders.
He deployed 1,500 troops to the U.S. border, with a senior Marine official telling Fox News that at least 500 of them will have live ammunition in their weapons and “we are going in ready to respond if the [drug] cartels shoot at us”.
He mulled plans to welcome freed January 6 prison inmates to a ceremony at the White House that will celebrate their liberty, and doubled down on his controversial decision to free even the most violent insurrectionists who left police officers bloodied, beaten and wounded.
Read more: Donald Trump reveals what Joe Biden wrote in 'inspirational' farewell letter
Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, a TV weather forecaster lost her job after using her personal Instagram account to accuse Elon Musk of engaging in a Nazi salute at Monday’s inauguration rally.
We are definitely not in Kansas any more.
Trump is exhibiting limitless determination to implement his agenda. Fox News presenter Sean Hannity, shortly after conducting Trump’s first TV interview of his second administration, told correspondents in the White House briefing room that he had found the President to be “focused…happy, and he has a big agenda. He’s dialled in”.
The figures now ensconced in Trump’s inner circle had prepared for this Blitzkrieg approach in government. They made no bones about their determination to prevent Washington careerists, experts, and members of the permanent elite from derailing the President’s ambitions, and they are moving with alacrity to begin a process of retribution against countless Americans perceived to have wronged their leader.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, seen by Trump as a turncoat after their falling-out during his first term in office, was stripped of his security detail just 12 hours after the President’s swearing-in. Bolton has faced death threats from the Iranians for years, but must now fend for himself.
The men and women Trump deems “traitors” are now on notice: his administration is coming after them, in a variety of different forms. General Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who secured a pre-emptive pardon in the final hours of Joe Biden’s presidential term, cannot now be targeted legally. But at the Pentagon, his portrait was immediately removed from the main hallway where pictures of all the other former chairmen are located. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin regularly used similar tactics in the USSR to declare turncoat military figures and other officials “non-persons”.
The order issued to federal government workers to snitch on any colleagues who may harbour desires to circumvent the Trump team’s determination to gut the civil service of DEI positions and policies is especially chilling for Washington careerists. All DEI staff were placed on sudden “administrative leave” on Wednesday night and saw their government e-mail accounts immediately suspended.
With Trump vowing to implement “merit-based only” hiring policies, there seems little likelihood that entire offices dedicated to boosting diversity at the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services and other government ministries will survive.
A memo sent to employees of multiple government agencies warned staff that “we are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language”. Workers are given ten days to report anyone continuing to engage in DEI work, or face undisclosed consequences later for their inaction.
At several government agencies, staff have been ordered to abandon any public appearances or to avoid speaking out about the changes being implemented in their departments.
At the world-renowned National Institutes of Health (NIH), Trump ordered the sudden cancellation of meetings, halted a training workshop of junior scientists that was already underway, and cancelled meetings of two grant review panels. One senior employee, speaking anonymously, told the journal 'Science' that the executive actions were “devastating” for the agency. Trump has regularly targeted NIH for criticism, and made repeated, false claims about its involvement in the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the hours since Monday’s inauguration, Trump’s orders have spread fear and panic among the 2.8 million federal employees whose futures now lie entirely in the President’s control. But the private sector is also witnessing the first, early efforts to bend to Trump’s will.
One unlikely casualty is a 31-year old TV meterologist at CBS affiliate WDJT-TV in Milwaukee. On Wednesday, Sam Kuffel was fired by Weigel Broadcasting, owners of the station, after claiming that Musk had “Nazi saluted twice” at Trump’s inaugural celebration. The comments were made on Kuffel’s personal Instagram account, but by Wednesday afternoon her biography, photograph, and all references to her were deleted from the television station’s website.
Chilling days in America, these ones. And we’re only just getting started.