What did Donald Trump do today?

He did (more) mass layoffs of critical American health care workers.

In a previously unannounced move, Trump expanded his mass firings of government workers responsible for providing health and medical services to Americans today. An additional 10,000 workers at the National Institutes for Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Directors at NIH programs were fired in what appears to be a blanket purge of otherwise apolitical leadership positions—even ones who had served in the first Trump administration. Among the programs decimated by the firings are those doing research on Parkinsons and other neurodegenerative diseases, working on HIV/AIDS prevention, and approving new drugs and making sure existing ones stay safe. 

The official Trump administration rationale is that these and other firings will save taxpayers money. In reality, even as the Treasury has stopped paying out salaries to fired workers, the federal government is spending at a faster pace. This is because salaries are a tiny fraction of the cost of government, and because most of the "savings" that the so-called DOGE agency has reported are fake.

Source: NYT

Meanwhile, because Trump fired IRS workers responsible for enforcing tax laws against corporations and wealthy individuals, government revenues are expected to plummet by half a trillion dollars.

Why does this matter?

• Shooting yourself in the foot for no reason is a bad idea.

• Americans deserve—and the United States can afford—health care, clean food, and medical research.