On today’s BradCast: What’s in it for Donald Trump? Seriously. Why does he want to break the government? [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
I know why Elon Musk wants to dismantle and destroy the federal government piece-by-piece (so his government contracts can’t be policed or businesses regulated, etc.) And I understand Trump’s need for retribution against his perceived enemies. But why does Trump want to seemingly dismantle damn near every federal agency, from the U.S. Forest Service to USAID and beyond, no matter how ham-handedly? No matter how much it grows (not shrinks) the national debt, no matter how many Americans (including his own voters) it puts out of work, and no matter how much the chaos he is wreaking continues to sink his approval ratings? No matter how much none of his flailing lowers the price of eggs.
It’s certainly not in the name of “efficiency” or cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”, as the evidence makes plain, no matter how many lies and quickly disproven claims about “million and millions” of dead people receiving Social Security checks or Musk’s DOGE Bros claiming to have “saved” at least $55 billion in Government contracts to date. (It’s more like $2 billion.) All false claims that both Trump and Musk repeat, only to have to walk them back when proven wrong, time and again.
We discuss a lot of that at the top of the show, along with a bunch of related news headlines from over the weekend, before opening up the phones today to listeners for answers to that simple question: What’s in it for Donald Trump? Why does he really want to dismantle the government?
We talk to a lot of callers with a lot of differing explanations (though being controlled by Vladimir Putin seems to be a listener fave…even if it doesn’t fully answer all of my questions about Trump’s behavior here.)
Perhaps Trump’s recently-confirmed Sec. of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, gave away the truth on Fox “News” over the weekend, when he falsely claimed that Trump ran on “reprivatizing the economy”. He didn’t run on that. Though Project 2025 — which he pretended to disavow during the campaign — certainly called for it. Is that his game? Cripple federal government so private corporations can then fill the gap and offer the same services to the American people for a higher price that includes profit to those private corporations?
Please tune in for lots of interesting discussion today. And, if you have a better explanation for why Trump wants to kill the U.S. government by gutting hundreds of thousands of government jobs and services, seemingly at random, for no easily discernible reason, feel free to let me know in comments below…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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He is grandstanding to his base so they will say at least he tried.
Then the poor will be cut, The middle class will again only get half of the tax reduction/refund they deserve, and the rest will go to the top 5%.
The deficit will remain hidden and esoteric.
The rich will have their dynasties and the rest will struggle.
The plantation system wins again.
Mike
Memphis
He wants the US Constitution to allow a third term for president, so he must Musk test the waters.
His goal, then, is to impair state entities that control election outcomes.
He can declare himself winner of his third term which only ends with his passing.
Or, perhaps he will quicken the plan after creating a national emergency then use the military as his nation saving police force.
WE are back!
Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE