Trump and Musk act like kings while Wyoming’s delegation does nothing

Has your head been spinning since the afternoon of Jan. 20? 

One can hardly keep up with the flurry of executive orders emanating from the Oval Office, much less their status in the courts as challenges proceed. Then there are the multiple pronouncements from co-presidents Elon Musk and Donald Trump about the billions of dollars in “fraud, waste and abuse” found in agencies they’re gutting. No evidence of it, of course, but that’s what they say. 

Consider that Wyoming in 2024 had roughly 8,000 federal employees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. How many recently received the infamous “Fork in the Road” email threatening them to resign or else? How many were ordered to report to Elon five things they did last week or be fired? How many of them left? How will their families get by if they’ve lost their jobs? How will the economies of Sheridan (VA), or Torrington (USDA), or Rawlins (BLM) or Cody (Park Service) fare if the people who used to work and raise families in these places move away?

What about the elderly? The over-60 crowd in Cheyenne used to be able to just walk into the Social Security office and get signed up for Medicare and Social Security when the time came. Same with younger disabled people who could at least apply for disability benefits in person and be assisted by knowledgeable Social Security staff. Don’t try that anymore. For a while now, an appointment has been needed to get in the office. But once Trump and Musk are done culling the staff, who’ll be there to help? Will there even be an office to visit?

The co-presidents are treating most federal agencies as the enemy, ignoring lives that will be uprooted and economies whacked by the loss of federal workers and contracts. Current statistics are hard to come by, but Wyoming Public Radio reported in 2023 that Wyoming ranks third when it comes to money received via federal contract compared to the amount of money paid in federal taxes. This per WalletHub, a personal finance website.

Also, Wyoming ranked first for the amount of financial assistance received per dollar in federal taxes paid. Despite all the “fight the fed” talk you hear from state legislators, Wyoming ranked first among state governments that are financially dependent on the federal government. If you think the now much-vilified U.S. Department of Education doesn’t help Wyoming kids, you don’t know much about the education of developmentally disabled students. Don’t worry — neither do the co-presidents, and they don’t care.

Nor do they worry about the deaths they’ve caused by summarily halting USAID programs to fight AIDS, relieve hunger and support other humanitarian efforts. This “soft diplomacy” has won countless hearts and minds by saving lives and promoting democracy around the world for decades. (Remember that? We used to love democracy in this country.)

What they do care about is appearing to be tough on immigrants. As a matter of international law, people can legally seek asylum from persecution. The (mostly brown) people who’d long had appointments to do so here had theirs canceled Jan. 20 without notice. Many found themselves precariously shipped to Mexico. Others were flown further south at vast government expense amid frightening photo ops. Now the administration is incarcerating immigrants at Guantanamo and plans to also use a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. They won’t be seen again if they go there.

Some people are still being encouraged by the co-presidents to seek asylum here: white (only) South Africans. So far, these Afrikaners are saying no thanks. Guess they don’t want to be any closer to their countryman Elon Musk than they already are.

Birthright citizenship? Forget it, except that it’s a constitutional right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment since 1868, as affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898.

The co-presidents aren’t worried; their personal DOJ is appealing the most recent ruling upholding the Constitution’s clear statement about citizenship. As they will every other ruling that says they can’t treat the country, its people and its institutions like rubble. Evidently, the thinking is to do as much harm as possible, as quickly as possible, scare as many people as possible, and rely on the now-tame Supreme Court to find some way to uphold their proposals’ illegality. This “ask for the moon” strategy worked last July, when the Supreme Court suddenly invented the concept of “presidential immunity” from criminal prosecution. 

But, wait! Aren’t we a system of checks and balances? Didn’t we all learn in public school that there are three separate, co-equal branches of government? Aren’t they the executive, legislative and judicial? What about the legislative branch? What’s it doing to stop this lawlessness?

Zero. Both the House and the Senate are controlled by “Republicans,” called that only in the sense that they aren’t members of the Democratic Party. A real Republican is a supporter of government by elected representatives of the people, rather than government by a monarch, per the Cambridge Dictionary. 

Those running the House and Senate now think a MAGA monarchy is fine. Has Wyoming’s congressional delegation done anything but root it on? Conveniently forgetting their outrage each time Biden or Obama took executive action, they’re cheerfully ceding legislative authority now. They fear the power that’s now in the hands of the co-presidents, one of whom is filthy rich and thus important. The other was duly elected, albeit by less than 50% of eligible voters, and that’s all that matters to them.

That Congress created and funds the agencies presently being bulldozed, set up the now-destroyed inspector general system in the wake of Watergate and has the power of the purse are trifling details compared to the prospect of angering MAGA. Shame on all of us for allowing the noun “primary” to be turned into a threatening verb.

Wyoming’s senators said little when I wrote to object to the unelected co-president Musk having both reading and writing access to the highly sensitive personal data of millions of Americans, including every Wyomingite. To her credit, Sen. Cynthia Lummis replied, assuring me that she ardently supports the Constitution. She added that Elon Musk is working at the elected president’s request. Maybe so, but does that make whatever Musk does right? Or legal? 

Does the unelected co-president have any guardrails other than the “thumbs up, thumbs down” edict of the Elected One? Aren’t there privacy laws that prohibit the disclosure of highly sensitive personal information? Yes, there are. What are Musk and his youthful hackers doing with all this data? Who knows? 

Shouldn’t someone in a position of authority, like our senators, at least ask these questions? Shouldn’t they call for a legislative committee to investigate these things? You’d think, but has even one elected Republican dared to even think such thoughts? The silence on all of this from Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate leader, is deafening.