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DOGE Weekly Watchdog: Trump and Musk’s First 100 Days Have Been a Boon for Billionaires, While Essential Benefits Get Axed

 

This week, President Donald Trump and his billionaire backer, Elon Musk, will mark their 100th day in office. In that time, they have taken a wrecking ball toward the essential services that taxpayers rely on – gutting everything from affordable health care and housing programs, to veterans’ services, public education, cancer research, food safety, farmers’ assistance, national park funding, mental health funding, and national security programs. 

Trump and Musk’s cuts have led to devastation in cities across the country, with dramatic job losses for federal workers everywhere from our nation’s capital to Kansas City and Oklahoma City. At the same time, they’ve sent costs soaring, created chaos and uncertainty for small businesses and investors, undermined workers’ rights, lowered consumer confidence, and marched the country toward a recession. It’s no surprise Americans are souring on Trump, who has the lowest 100-day approval rating in 80 years, and Musk.

While life gets more expensive for regular Americans, billionaires and big corporations are cashing in on the chaos and cuts inflicted by Trump and Musk. One of Musk’s earliest cuts was to hollow out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the agency formed in the wake of the Great Recession to protect consumers against predatory Wall Street schemes, which has put $21 billion back in the hands of consumers. In doing so, Trump and Musk gave a gift to their billionaire donors, many of whom were under investigation by the CFBP. An Accountable.US analysis also found that Trump and Musk stand to personally benefit financially from the cuts to the watchdog agency. Another report found that when entering government, Musk and his companies were subject to 65 actions by 11 different federal agencies, totaling more than $2 billion in interests at stake. 

Washington leaders should enact reforms to cut red tape and waste, make the government more efficient, and ensure that Americans receive the essential benefits they’ve earned. For the past 100 days, Donald Trump and Elon Musk haven’t lifted a finger to advance those goals. Instead, DOGE is a vehicle for their true agenda of cutting taxes for themselves and their billionaire friends, paid for by destroying Americans’ Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. 

 

HOW THE TRUMP-MUSK ADMINISTRATION’S DOGE IS HARMING FAMILIES 
  • Axing public health staff focusing on limiting the increased spread of syphilis: In recent years, the spread of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, has been on the rise – including an 80% increase from 2018 to 2022. As the preventable infectious disease continues to threaten communities, Musk’s DOGE axed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab staff and funding for studies focused on limiting the epidemic. According to one public health expert, “This is very concerning to our ability to maintain a functioning public health system and a world-class system that protects the American people. We don’t know what’s going to happen, and we’re very worried about this.”
  • Gutting the suicide prevention hotline, cruelly targeting LGBTQ youth: A leaked Health and Human Services Department budget draft reveals that Trump and Musk plan to cut 988 national suicide prevention hotline – cruelly targeting use among LGBTQ youth who are experiencing mental health challenges. Since its launch, the 988 hotline for LGBTQ youth has received more than a million calls, texts, and messages. An expert in New York described the impact in stark terms: “If this funding does get cut, more LGBT kids will die from suicide.”
  • Eliminating mental health funding for children: Trump and Musk took a sledgehammer to free mental health counseling for children, including homeless children. Already, the cuts are hitting Nevada, with at least three mental health clinics getting their grants eliminated. As one community member put it, ‘Our community is plagued with mental illness. This program is saving lives, and we cannot afford to lose it.’”
  • Cuts to disease treatments and food aid likely to reach “genocidal proportions”: Earlier this year, Trump and Musk eliminated nearly $13 billion in global public health and food assistance programs, which mitigate the spread of diseases to the United States, and help counter the global influence of foreign adversaries, including China. A new study released last week reveals that those cuts are projected to result in “more than 15 million additional deaths from HIV/AIDS, more than 2 million additional casualties from tuberculosis, and nearly 8 million additional children dead,” and “would reverse decades of progress in global health.”

  

SOCIAL CONTENT TO LIFT
  • @duckworth.senate.gov‬: While America’s skies are getting busier, DOGE has cut more than 300 jobs from the FAA, which is already stretched to its limits. Depriving the FAA of staff isn’t just inefficient—it’s dangerous. More delays. More cancellations. More risk for everyone flying.
  • @americanprogress.bsky.social‬: DOGE’s cuts are impacting communities across the country, including rural coal miners in West Virginia. Even some Republican senators are calling on the Trump admin to reverse “problematic” cuts to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
  • @repbillfoster.bsky.social‬: Thanks to DOGE and RFK Jr., critical drug data is missing at the FDA—leaving doctors in the dark and patients at risk. The Trump Administration’s incompetence continues to endanger Americans.
  • ‪@cantwell.senate.gov‬: The National Science Foundation 55 percent budget cut is a deliberate dismemberment of America’s innovation engine by Russell Vought and DOGE. This is exactly the type of behavior you would expect from someone seeking to make America weaker www.science.org/content/arti…

 

Budget cuts by DOGE are hitting critical services hard—healthcare, farmers’ aid, research, veterans’ care, and Head Start programs. 
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