Of all the Tom Friedman columns I’ve read over many years, this is one of the very best, if not the best. It’s titled “The America We Knew is Rapidly Slipping Away” because Donald Trump has just told the most dangerous of his thousands of lies. His top economic subordinates, no dummies, should have warned him (but didn’t, saluting instead) that if the US Government erases data it doesn’t like, no one in the world will ever trust our word (or numbers) again.
He’s referring to Trump’s firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after she released jobs numbers he didn’t like. He charged (without evidence) that she had “rigged” the jobs report to make his economic management look worse than he believed it actually was.
Trump announced last Monday that he will nominate E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the right-wing Heritage Foundation, as her successor. Trump said on Truth Social “Our Economy is booming, and EJ will ensure that the numbers released will be HONEST and ACCURATE.”
Any nominee of Trump’s would be suspect for cooking the books in Trump’s favor but given Antoni’s Heritage Foundation connection and Trump’s not-subtle instruction, his numbers will be doubly suspect, especially if they are better than McEntarfer’s. Friedman quotes a British financial expert as saying that the US Treasury Department henceforth should be called “the Ministry of Truth,” George Orwell’s parody name for the Ministry of Lies in “1984.” And Friedman cites a bevy of other falsehoods not quite as damaging to American credibility, as I will below.
Science and the Environment
Serious as tampering with economic data is, perhaps more dangerous in the long run are the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in various environmental agencies’ science offices and their ability to keep track of, model and report climate change data and mitigate their consequences—storms, floods, wildfires, droughts, pollution and health risks. The United States will be flying blind into a future of steadily-warming temperatures, droughts, melting icepacks, rising sea levels and climate-related migration.
In addition, Trump has taken decisive action against solar and wind renewable energy sources and in favor of fossil fuels, which pour earth-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump declared that “one of the most urgent tasks…is to decisively defeat the climate hysteria hoax.” His administration branded past National Climate Assessments as “politically biased” and “alarmist,” and removed them from public websites, dismissed hundreds of contributing experts, and scrubbed federal webpages of any reference to climate change. That was only part of his turning several agencies into the environmental equivalent of Ministries of Truth.
The Environmental Protection Agency has experienced among the deepest budget cuts of any federal agency—more than 54%–and Administrator Lee Zeldin has served notice that he wants to rescind the 2009 endangerment study that is the basis for all regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power plants and oil and gas facilities.
Zeldin calls it “the largest deregulatory action in the history of America.” He has projected annual savings of $54 billion, though the agency’s own regulatory impact assessment estimated that Biden’s climate policies would have yielded over $2.6 trillion in net benefits over 30 years, including $820 billion in fuel savings and $1.8 trillion in public health and climate benefits.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been cut by 30%, endangering its weather and climate science missions. NOAA’s constellation of satellites, buoys, and ocean floats form the backbone of global hurricane forecasts, Arctic sea-ice monitoring and marine ecosystem assessments.
NOAA also has disbanded its billion-dollar catastrophes database, previously the best source for judging the consequences of climate change. Airborne “Hurricane Hunter” missions continue, but budget pressures and personnel churn pose ongoing risks to mission readiness.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy and Renewable Energy has been cut by more than 70%–a $2.5 billion reduction in funding for wind, solar, efficiency, hydrogen, carbon capture and other clean-energy projects and R&D programs.
Trump cut $392 million out of ARPA-E, the agency’s advanced technology energy-innovation arm, and totally eliminated the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.
Meantime, fossil-fuel research and nuclear security programs were held flat or increased, threatening US competitiveness in clean energy. China has doubled its investment in clean energy technology over the past decade, though investment is scheduled to moderate this year in favor of energy security and grid stability. And China is the world’s leader in electric vehicle production, far outstripping the US even before Trump eliminated tax incentives for their purchase.
NASA’s Earth science portfolio will shrink by nearly 10% under the administration’s budget, trimming missions crucial to real-time climate observation. Cancelled or delayed satellites leave gaps in measurements of atmospheric composition, polar ice mass and terrestrial carbon storage. These data inform both international climate negotiations and domestic adaptation strategies, from intracity heat-wave alerts to monitoring agricultural drought stress. Cutting NAASA’s environmental programs risks pre-eminent US leadership in Earth system science and could surrender critical insights to foreign space agencies.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, responsible for coordinating national disaster preparedness and hazard mitigation programs, is being cut by 25%, with states expected to make up the loss even though their personnel often are not as experienced or well-trained as FEMA employees and their equipment not as up to date.
FEMA grants support community flood-map revisions, wildfire risk assessments and resilience training for local emergency managers. Underfunded states will struggle to update infrastructure standards, leaving schools, hospitals and roads vulnerable to intensifying climate-driven disasters.
Reduced grant capacity also means fewer pre-disaster hazard preparation projects, which historically save four dollars in future damages for every dollar spent. FEMA’s response to the deadly July 2025 Texas Hill Country flood that killed at least 138 people was complicated by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decree that she had to review and approve every expenditure of more than $100,000 in her department, whose 2025 budget is $112 billion, including $33billion for FEMA.
Various news organizations and some FEMA employees say that her decree slowed deployment of routine FEMA approvals and assets early in the flooding, though FEMA officially denies the reports. An investigation is under way.
Even though Trump and his underlings dismiss climate change as merely “weather,” the fact is that 2024 was the hottest year on record and the last 10 years were the warmest decade on record. The number of billion-dollar climate catastrophes in the US reached 27 in 2024, the highest ever, killing 568 people and costing a total of $183 billion.
The previous record was set in 2023, with 23 disasters. These compare with just five events in 2000 costing $15.5 billion and killing 147 people. In 2025 so far, wildfires in Los Angeles and surrounding areas cost $65 billion, one of the costliest disasters in history, with 18,000 structures destroyed. 2024 was also the record year for climate-related disasters globally, with 393 events causing 16,753 deaths and costing $320 billion in property and infrastructure damage.
Trump & Co can’t deny these numbers, but they do deny overwhelming scientific judgements about the future if greenhouse gas emissions are not arrested. Global warming in 2024 reached 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (before 1800). Scientistss had determined that a 1.5 degree rise is the goal set at the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, signed by 195 nations and the European Union. All remain parties to the pact except the United States, from which Trump withdrew on his Inauguration Day.
Scientists expect the globe to reach 1.5 in the early 2030s, at which point it’s estimated 30,000 people will die annually from heat-related causes, ocean currents including the Gulf Stream will begin seriously breaking down, permafrost will melt with attendant release of methane and CO2 accelerating global warming, 70% to 90% of coral reefs will disappear, 350 million urban dwellers will experience water scarcity, wildfires and floods and storms will be more frequent, and glaciers ice sheets in Greenland and the poles will experience significant melting, leading to rising sea levels.
At 2 degrees, expected somewhere around 2043, certain systems will become irreversible—Atlantic and Southern ocean currents will collapse, affecting weather patterns in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Also, deforestation could turn the Amazon basin and tropical jungles into vast carbon producers instead of a carbon absorbers. All that is the risk if the world can’t or won’t (with Donald Trump in the lead) fulfill the Paris Accord goals.
That’s not all of Trump’s recent outrages, such as:
The Epstein Conspiracy
Making sure Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and convicted partner in his sexual abuse of underage girls, won’t name Trump as one of Jeffrey Epstein’s “clients” (if he actually was one), but may name important Democrats. She reportedly discussed some 100 individuals with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who then participated in a strategy session also attended by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Trump’s strategy now appears to be stalling and casting the whole Epstein controversy as “bullshit” and a “radical Democrat” plot. The strategy is not working, however. A YouGov poll shows that 79% of Americans and 75% of Republicans want full disclosure on the part of the administration. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Maxwell and right-wing conspiratorialist Laura Loomer has said that unless Trump practices full disclosure, his presidency will be consumed by the scandal.
The week after her interviews, Maxwell was transferred from a low security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas regarded as one of the best prisons in the country to serve time in, known as “Club Fed “for its leniency. The transfer could be interpreted as a reward for not implicating Trump. And Trump has dangled a pardon for her, saying “I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but no one has asked for it…I shouldn’t talk about it.”
Weaponizing America’s Law Enforcement
Though Republicans loudly complained of “weaponization” of the Justice Department under Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, falsely claiming that they charged Trump with offenses connected with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result and instigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol invasion, Trump’s AG, Pam Bondi, has actually weaponized Justice by ordering an investigation of ex-Special Prosecutor Jack Smith for alleged political bias and improper prosecutorial conduct. It’s one of an escalating number of cases where Trump’s Justice Department has gone after Trump’s perceived adversaries.
And then there’s Trump’s takeover of policing the District of Columbia and deployment of the National Guard to patrol DC’s streets. Trump declared his moves “a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” In fact, total violent crime in DC in 2024 was down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it’s been in 30 years. Trump has indicated he might do the same in other Democratic-run cities, including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Critics have assailed the DC takeover as an attempt to divert attention from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard doubled down on her charge that Barrack Obama committed treason by altering a 2917 US Intelligence Community report that found that Russia interfered with the 2016 election only to the extent of trying to sow discontent in various US communities in the US. Obama, she’s charging, ordered a change in the report to accuse Russia of interfering in the election to help elect Trump.
Gabbard declared that a newly declassified 2020 House Intelligence Committee report showed that Obama directed “a treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Trump that included former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. At the time, the panel was chaired by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, a strong Trump ally.
She referred the group, including Obama, to the Justice Department for investigation and possible prosecution. Her (and Trump’s) allegation of treason rests on the assertion that the group’s action “subverted the will of the American people,” However, the House report conflicts with other reports confirming the ICA’s final report that Russia did interfere to
help Trump after years-long reviews by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee headed by GOP Sen. Richard Burr and including then-Sen
and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump-appointed special counsel John Durham.
Given Attorney General Pam Bondi abandonment of the post-Watergate Department of Justice tradition of independence from partisan politics or White House influence over Justice, it’s entirely possible that Obama and Co. will be indicted for something. But it
shouldn’t be treason, whose Constitutional definition is “levying war against the Unites States, or adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
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