Trump Just Fired 17 Inspectors General - Makes Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre Look Like A Picnic
Executive Orders And Purge Of Independent Oversight Are First Steps In Consolidating Fascist Power
With A Loyal Republican Congress And Federalist Society Driven Supreme and Federal Courts, Trump Is Now A Dictator With No Oversight
[Update Below]
In the dark of Friday night, Trump just fired 17 Inspectors General (IG's). (see NY Times, Washington Post, and Reuters stories). Trump's "Friday Night Massacre".
Echoes of Richard Nixon's Saturday Night Massacre come to mind, but Nixon's corrupt abuses are dwarfed by Trump's moves.
Once again, the corporate media is downplaying and not reporting on the significance of these outrageous Trump moves or calling them out. Here's just one example from the Reuters story:
The dismissals appeared to violate federal law, which requires the president to give both houses of Congress reasons for the dismissals 30 days in advance.
Appeared to violate federal law? Just like several of the Executive Orders, the illegality is blatant.
At least the Washington Post headline correctly described them as a "late night purge" - but they too pull punches by saying the move "appears to violate federal law".
The IG's conduct rigorous investigations and serve as independent watchdogs of federal agencies to prevent waste, fraud, abuse, and other corruption. They also investigate the performance of federal agencies in implementing and enforcing federal laws. IG's often followup the claims of whistleblowers in exposing corruption.
Their firing invites corruption.
Their firing allows Trump to dictate illegal and corrupt policies to federal government agencies, with no independent accountability.
Their firing allows Trump to mask any exposure of his administration's actions, suppress information and science, and spin the narrative with no oversight, countervailing force or inside information from federal agencies.
Congressional oversight is controlled by Trump's Republican loyalists. Judicial oversight is controlled by a right wing Supreme Court and decades of right wing Federalist Society federal court judicial appointments.
Trump can replace the IG's with his loyalists and lackeys, or allow the positions to remain vacant.
Just like his illegal Executive Orders, it is another classic move of a Fascist.
These are impeachable offenses.
Democrats need to shut down Congress and make this shit stop.
[Update: 1/26/25 - First, I’m still trying to get the list of the IG’s that were fired. Looks like the Department of Interior AG was fired and Trump is straight up lying about it, calling it a “common thing to do”, when it is unprecedented in violating the law on notification of Congress and in its scope and lack of justification.
Second, a reader has pushed back and falsely claimed that the IG’s are political and do nothing (she drinks the Trump Kool-aid). So, for those unfamiliar with the work of the IG’s, check out the EPA IG webpage.
And for those who think that IG’s are political and do nothing, check out this scathingly critical EPA IG Report:
There are MANY like this.
Even the environmental groups are not this critical or don’t have this kind of expertise and inside information and access to EPA scientists and staffers.
The faint hope that Trump might govern from a newly confident and magnanimous self who carried a new Congress with him didn't last long. I didn't reach my assessments over the last two years quickly, but I am glad my last post just before the election was to my region's Trumpian elected officials (in Western Maryland) to go on the public record opposing him. Silence of course.
This is an important step down an increasingly ugly road.