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revolving door project
'Matter of Life and Death': New Tracker Exposes Trump Regime's Attack on Disaster Preparedness
"It's only a matter of time before Trump and Musk's reckless assault on disaster response and preparedness kills people in the United States," said a researcher with government watchdog The Revolving Door Project.
Jul 02, 2025
President Donald Trump has openly stated his desire to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency—a move that has left some experts fearful about how the United States will handle natural disasters such as hurricanes in the coming months.
The Revolving Door Project, a government watchdog group, has now put together a tracking tool to keep tabs on how much the administration's attacks on both FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have worsened the nation's disaster preparedness.
The tool has two components: An interactive map showing all of the state disaster aid requests that the Trump administration has outright denied or only partially approved and an interactive timeline documenting all of the times that the administration has undermined the functionality of America's disaster preparedness agencies through actions such as placing agency employees on administrative leave and disbanding key bodies such as FEMA's National Advisory Council and its National Dam Safety Review Board.
All of these disruptions and cuts, argued Revolving Door Project senior researcher Kenny Stancil, are likely to come back to bite America in a big way when another natural disaster strikes.
"It's only a matter of time before Trump and Musk's reckless assault on disaster response and preparedness kills people in the United States," he said in explaining the need for the initiative. "It nearly happened in mid-May in Kentucky, where a DOGE-damaged NWS forecast office had to scramble for staff before a tornado. Amid last week's heatwave, low-income households across the country were missing the federal support they need to keep the air conditioning on. And when a major hurricane arrives, Trump, Musk, OMB Director Russell Vought, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will almost certainly have blood on their hands."
Revolving Door Project executive director Jeff Hauser issued a similarly dire warning about the administration's actions on U.S. disaster preparedness and he described the actions being taken by the administration as "a matter of life-and-death." He also accused the administration of "preventing forecasters and emergency managers at all levels from doing what is necessary to prepare for and respond to disasters."
Trump in the past has tried to use federal disaster relief money as a cudgel against his political opponents, such as when he threatened to withhold funding from California during catastrophic wildfires unless the state did a better job of "raking" its forests.
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Musk Might Be Gone, But Watchdogs Warn Trump/DOGE Carnage Will Continue
"Musk's departure obscures but does not actually change the continuity of DOGE's staff and mission to destroy everything that protects the public from the depredations of the most rapacious oligarchs," said one critic.
May 30, 2025
Critics of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency cautioned Friday against undue elation or complacency over Elon Musk stepping down as de facto DOGE chief, warning that officials at the contentious agency are pressing ahead with U.S. President Donald Trump's mission of eviscerating key agencies and the ability of the federal government to properly function.
With Musk's official departure from DOGE this week—returning to the private sector to run his beleaguered business empire—most of the agency's leadership and rank-and-file staff remain in place. As the Revolving Door Project (RDP) noted Friday, key DOGE officials "maintain extensive ties to Musk's corporate empire, with many of them having come to DOGE directly from one of Musk's companies."
According to RDP research, "at least 46 former or current DOGE members have substantial and direct ties to Elon Musk."
"DOGE isn't going anywhere, according to the Trump administration's own officials," RDP said. The watchdog group warned specifically about Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, who they said "seems to be the new boss in town."
The visions of the two men, said RDP, "have been aligned from the start. Musk endorsed Vought's view of the unconstitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act and said that DOGE would work 'closely with [OMB].'"
Yesterday, Elon Musk claimed once again to be stepping back from DOGE. But does that mean that his lackeys are too? If Musk leaves government but his loyalists stay behind, what difference does that really make? 🧵
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— Revolving Door Project (@revolvingdoordc.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Vought co-authored the policy portion of Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for gutting the government and expanding executive power.
"There is no daylight between Elon Musk and Russ Vought on the aim of greenlighting corporate abuse, as anyone can see from their joint destruction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," RDP executive director Jeff Hauser said Friday. "DOGE's Musk-tied staffers have already burrowed into the government, and having a new boss who has coordinated extensively with Musk isn't likely to change their actual actions much at all."
"Musk's departure obscures but does not actually change the continuity of DOGE's staff and mission to destroy everything that protects the public from the depredations of the most rapacious oligarchs," Hauser added.
Another watchdog, Accountable.US, noted Friday that Vought "has a nearly 20-year record working on Republican efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare—including overseeing numerous Trump budget proposals."
"It's proof that DOGE's extreme agenda, which is causing ordinary families to fall behind, is full steam ahead as Trump and his allies in Congress push forward deep cuts to Americans' essential benefits," the group continued. "Last week, congressional Republicans advanced the largest cuts to Medicaid and [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] in history, which would result in 14 million Americans losing health coverage, 3 million households without food assistance, and an increased burden for millions with higher education and energy costs. All while adding over $4 trillion to the deficit."
"Americans deserve real government reforms to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayers are able to access the services they pay for," Accountable.US added. "That was never DOGE's goal. Instead Trump and Musk tried to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, to line their own pockets and those of their billionaire friends with tax cuts, and the administration is only just getting started."
As one staffer at the DOGE-beset National Institutes of Health told Politico, "DOGE is still hungry. We've still got to feed the fucking dog."
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'Constitutional Crime': Outrage as Trump Fires Democratic FTC Commissioners
"The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists," said fired commissioner Alvaro Bedoya. "Now, the president wants the FTC to be a lap dog for his golfing buddies."
Mar 18, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump said he fired the two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday, a move blasted by consumer rights and democracy advocates as yet another illegal abuse of power by the twice-impeached Republican felon.
The White House announced the termination of Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya from the FTC, a five-member body tasked with enforcing civil antiitrust law and protecting consumers.
"Today the president illegally fired me from my position as a federal trade commissioner, violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent," Slaughter said in a statement. "Why? Because I have a voice. And he is afraid of what I'll tell the American people."
Just got a statement from Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a Democratic FTC commissioner, who was unlawfully fired today, furthering a showdown in the courts over control of independent agencies.
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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
"The administration clearly fears the accountability that opposition voices would provide if the president orders Chair [Andrew] Ferguson to treat the most powerful corporations and their executives—like those that flanked the president at his inauguration—with kid gloves," Slaughter continued, referring to multibillionaire tech CEOs Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg.
Last month, Ferguson endorsed the fringe legal theory that the president can terminate commissioners without cause—despite federal legislation against this. Bolstered by obsequious Republicans in his administration and Congress as well as a Supreme Court that critics say has granted the president king-like powers, Trump has moved to assert greater control over the federal government, including agencies meant to be independent.
Bedoya
wrote on social media: "The president just illegally fired me. This is corruption, plain and simple."
Full statement of @bedoyaftc.bsky.social, in my opinion the best FTC commissioner ever to commish, who was just fired by Trump
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— Evan Greer (@evangreer.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
"The FTC is an independent agency founded 111 years ago to fight fraudsters and monopolists, our staff is unafraid of the Martin Shkrelis and Jeff Bezos of the world. They take them to court and they win," Bedoya continued. "Now, the president wants the FTC to be a lap dog for his golfing buddies."
"I'll see the president in court," he added.
Responding to Trump's move, Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the watchdog group Revolving Door Project, said that "on the surface, this constitutional crime is about law and process and other abstract topics people often tune out—but underneath, it is motivated by good old-fashioned greed that will hurt every one of us who isn't a corrupt financier."
"Americans are rapidly losing their defenders against corporate fraud and malfeasance," Hauser continued. "First, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was gutted illegally by billionaire Elon Musk and his lackeys. Now, Trump is attempting, without a legal basis, to fire the FTC's two Democratic commissioners."
"As antitrust enforcement dies out and a handful of corporations accumulate even more economic power, Americans will only have one person to blame for the new fraud economy: Donald Trump," he added.
Emily Peterson-Cassin, the corporate power director at Demand Progress Education Fund, warned: "President Trump's illegal attempt to fire Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter opens the floodgates to unfettered corruption and self-dealing. This reckless attack on the FTC invites a return to the rampant, corporate graft that brought on the Great Depression."
"Billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos paid a lot for their concierge access to the White House and now President Trump is repaying their investment," she continued. "The FTC is currently investigating or suing many of the biggest corporations—including Google, which announced a multibillion-dollar merger just this afternoon."
"These illegal firing attempts put these investigations in doubt and could seriously curb the agency's power and responsibility to protect everyday Americans and honest, Main Street businesses from being scammed and trampled by megacorporations," Peterson-Cassin added. "With this action, the president is choosing to please his billionaire cronies, wreck the rule of law, and do generations of damage to a critical consumer protection agency."
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