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Imagine waking up each morning—your kids asleep in the next room, rising bills on the kitchen table, maybe your own parent battling an illness—knowing that one abrupt action from new management could cost you the job that keeps your family afloat. Now imagine your job is safeguarding America’s nuclear arsenal.
If you’ve ever lost a job or faced job insecurity before, you know the knot in the stomach, the relentless fear that many of our dedicated federal workers are facing right now. American patriots who chose a career of sacrifice and service are now the target of the impulsive whims of ego-maniac Elon Musk’s vanity project to slash the federal government—no matter how much harm they cause in the process.
“So many of us just want to serve the American people.”
— a friend and federal public servant
Many of these people, like me, answered the call to serve after 9/11—an entire generation of public servants united together behind a deep commitment to shared American values to protect, defend, and serve America. They chose duty and service over more lucrative alternatives, making great personal sacrifices to tackle the hardest challenges facing our nation. Some of them served in war zones and posts abroad, far from family and friends. They worked nights and weekends. They sacrificed kid’s birthdays and graduations, perhaps even their marriages or the opportunity to say goodbye to a loved one—all to keep our nation safe.
It is these patriots—dedicated, principled, and unwavering—who are facing an unprecedented direct assault that risks the safety and security of every American.
Musk is Stealing From You
Trump and Musk have promoted a false narrative that demonizes American patriots as lazy, unnecessary, and wasteful bureaucrats squandering taxpayer dollars. This false narrative is their excuse for sweeping cuts under the guise of “efficiency.” In reality, they’re pushing a plan that hands out $4.5 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires, ballooning the deficit while gutting the very institutions protecting ordinary Americans. But Musk and DOGE’s slash and burn tactics have been anything but efficient. They’re more of what you’d expect from a drug-addled South African billionaire wildly swinging a chainsaw like a blind man, hoping no one notices the real damage.
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Despite all the talk of cuts, federal salaries make up just 4% of the entire budget—there is no chance these firings will close any deficit, especially when they’re simultaneously doling out tax giveaways for Musk and his billionaire buddies. New reports show that many of Musk/DOGE cuts are NOT projected to produce any savings and DOGE is now deleting examples of spending cuts after they were exposed for lying about the amount of savings they claimed.
So without any chance for real benefit, the chaos that Musk has unleashed—removing government workers without a plan for maintaining essential services—is a recipe for disaster for Americans.
Cuts Harm America
These cuts aren’t planned or performance-based. They’re arbitrary—and in some cases, blatantly discriminatory.
Here are just a few examples and how it hurts Americans:
[FIRED] Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Top Military Brass. Trump fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - only the second Black general to serve as chairman. They also fired Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti - the first woman to lead the Navy and purged the JAG officers (top legal officers) from the Army, Air Force, and Navy. These firings at the highest levels of the military are unprecedented and have our men and women in uniform fearing if they’ll be asked to do something illegal or they might be next.
[Endangered] Undercover CIA Officers and Operations. DOGE threatens to jeopardize some of the government’s most sensitive operations and the names of undercover CIA officers. The CIA is now conducting a damage assessment after an unclassified email was sent to DOGE that identified some officers for potential layoffs.
[FIRED] Veterans and Those Who Serve Them. Trump and Musk have fired more veterans than any other other administration. As of today, an estimated 6,000 veterans have been fired, with more to come. These cuts have also cut essential services for veterans like the VA crisis line, access to critical care at VA hospitals like Castle Point in the Hudson Valley, and threatened chemotherapy care for veterans with cancer. It’s a one-two punch to our nation’s veterans, especially those who spent 20 years at war. The hostile environment of relentless attacks against civil servants even forced a disabled-veteran at the Department of Justice to resign, saying “it is no longer healthy for me to remain in this position.”
[FIRED] Workers Keeping Our Skies Safe. They have begun firing hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees just weeks after a fatal DC plane crash and growing number near crashes.
[FIRED] Nuclear Weapons Staff. DOGE fired hundreds of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration—the agency entrusted with managing America’s nuclear weapons stockpile. As an example of how chaotic and arbitrary these cuts are being handled, Trump officials realized they screwed up and tried to rehire the staff days after firing them—but are having a hard time rehiring them. This is the opposite of efficiency.
[FIRED] NIH, FDA Staff. Has your family been affected by Alzheimer’s or have someone you love suffering from a rare disease, like I do? Well Trump and Musk just fired the people trying to find a cure. Do you want food, drugs, and medical devices that are safe for you and your family? Those people got fired too, but days later the administration realized they screwed up and tried to rehire them. This chaos and will lead to American deaths.
This list is not exhaustive, just an example. Each reckless firing and cut under Musk and DOGE leaves a gaping hole in America’s safety and security. And none of it addresses skyrocketing grocery prices, housing costs, or inflation.
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The Pain is the Point
There is a legitimate way to streamline government. This isn’t it.
That’s because there are darker motives driving Trump and Musk’s destructive actions.
Spare me your “Deep State” conspiracy bullshit. America patriots stand as the watchful guardians of the Republic. Our public servants are bound by the Constitution and the rule of law. Unlike partisan political appointees, they do not serve a political party or a President. They serve the American people. They are the stoic, steady xxxxxx against all threats, foreign and domestic—never to be swayed by the ever-shifting political winds.
And that’s why they are being eliminated.
Trump’s own OMB Director Russ Vought made his plan for civil servants pretty clear:
“When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains…We want to put them in trauma.”
We are witnessing an effort to bring public servants to heel, a campaign to enforce obedience to a mad king.
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Cutting Vital Services, Not Costs for American Families
Americans by-in-large elected Trump to reduce the costs of living for American families. Prices on everything to eggs and groceries to housing and childcare remain sky high. Inflation is heating up and on the rise again thanks to Trump’s tariffs. And instead of prioritizing cutting costs for American families, Trump and Musk have prioritized cutting the vital services Americans rely on.
Defending American Patriots
What do you feel when you learn that someone has served in our nation’s military? Gratitude, appreciation for their service, a debt-obligation for their sacrifice, respect for honorably representing America? Whether they wore a uniform or not, ALL of our nation’s public servants deserve more than the pink slip. They deserve our thanks, unwavering support, and defense.
Reject the Myths: Don’t let anyone demonize public servants and convince you they are freeloaders.
Defend Public Servants: Recognize that behind every cut is a person with a family—and a mission to serve you.
Demand Accountability: Insist on a plan for maintaining essential services for the American people—from our nation’s defense, to keeping our skies and food safe, to caring those who served, and trailblazing life-saving treatments and cures.
Call Your Federal Representative. You can call your Representative now at 202-224-3121 and tell them to protect the public servants and vital services you rely on the most. Insist they hold town halls in your district, show up and speak out.
Millions of public servants stepped up to serve us, swearing a life-long oath to protect and defend America. Let’s show Musk and Trump that we know who the real villains are.
To my brothers and sisters in public service - Thank you for your service. We’ve got your back.
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