What did Donald Trump do today?

He made sure it would be easier to cheat on taxes on his watch.

Today, Trump—or someone using his authority as President—began firing as many as 7,000 IRS employees. He used the same loophole he's used to get around civil service job protections at other agencies, including the FAA, the National Parks Service, and the agency that builds and maintains the United States nuclear weapons stockpile.

The firings are expected to have two main effects. First, it will delay refunds and limit filing assistance for the vast majority of Americans who follow the law and file their taxes. Second, it will cost the federal government money as tax cheats—especially individuals at the very top of the income ladder—will be more likely to avoid paying their fair share, and more likely to try to hide assets.

Trump has claimed that the reason he wants to decimate the federal workforce is to save taxpayer money. The IRS, of course, generates taxpayer money—particularly when it enforces the law on people like Trump.

It's difficult to summarize all the various ways that Trump himself has bent or broken tax laws, before and during his presidency. He is known to have used tax-dodging schemes to illegally take about $413 million from his father. His company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of tax fraud in 2022. He famously refused to release his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, a usually routine step. When they were finally released to the public over Trump's objections after he'd left office, it was revealed that he'd lied about being under IRS audit during his term. (The IRS is required to audit presidents every year, and always has, with the specific exception of the years Donald Trump was president.) For ten out of 15 years ending in 2015, the self-described billionaire paid no income tax at all, and in 2016 and 2017 he paid $750—apparently so that he could say he paid taxes without technically lying. But he hasn't always shied away from his ability to pay less tax than a part-time minimum-wage worker: in a 2016 presidential debate, he boasted that not paying his taxes "means I'm smart." He has "paid" family members like his daughter Ivanka lavish "consulting fees" for unspecified business work, allowing him to deduct the amount from his business taxes while avoiding gift taxes. His fraudulent "charity," the Trump Foundation, was shut down by the state of New York in part because he used its tax-exempt status to hide wealth he controlled. He also deducted $70,000 in haircuts, claimed (and received) $72.9 million in refunds he wasn't entitled to, and paid hundreds of millions of dollars less than someone of his supposed wealth typically would.

The IRS is also a frontline agency for national security aims Trump might approve of (like disrupting the flow of money to Hamas and ISIL) and those he certainly would't (like enforcing sanctions against Russian oligarchs).

Why does this matter?

• Americans who don't cheat on their taxes don't usually like people who do.

• Donald Trump is not above the law, including the law that says he has to pay a tiny amount of his wealth as his fair share of taxes.

• A president who cared about efficiency or the budget deficit would make it easier for the government to collect the money it's legally owed, not more difficult.