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Feb. 3, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The trumpery of Trump continues. Last Wednesday, Trump’s OPM promised all federal employees that, if they resign now, they would be paid through next September. Neither Musk nor Trump have any legal authority to make that offer. It needs congressional approval it and that seems unlikely since, once again thanks to MAGA people, our national debt ceiling is red lining on March 14. Commitment for additional pay beyond that is meaningless.
Indeed, Trump/Musk violated federal law by agreeing to spend money the administration does not have!
But Steven Miller, White House chief of staff and allaround demagogue, claimed that 2 million civil servants are mostly liberal and must be purged so Trump/Musk can control the government. So, if lying to federal employees is what it takes, the ends justify the means. Trump/Musk have run their businesses thus for years.
On Thursday, Trump held a press conference in which he insinuated that Wednesday night’s air crash near Reagan National was a consequence of the Biden administration’s lowering of standards for air controller jobs. Trump told reporters he had seen no actual evidence to attribute the crash to changes in hiring standards but, “It just could have been. Because I have common sense.”
That claim summarizes Trump’s approach to governing. Without evidence, he asserts things as facts because, believing himself a preternatural genius, whatever he thinks, no matter how vile or racist, it is true. And by that way of thinking, any government agency or private corporation that seeks a qualified work force that is also diverse —like actual America — is responsible for waste and harm.
While making Thursday’s magical claim, Trump read unattested reports about what was on the FAA’s website about who was invited to apply for FAA jobs. The FAA hiring policies were the same during Trump 1.0. In any case, I’m sure the FAA was not hiring “mentally challenged” people to be air traffic controllers as Trump claimed. Those slots are reserved for convicted felons who sit behind the Resolute Desk. WALTER BOUZARD Rockbridge County
