Trump and DOGE have taken a chainsaw to countless government programs that millions of Americans rely on.

Here are 7 ways DOGE is ruining your life. 

First: DOGE is making it harder to feed yourself.

It’s no secret grocery prices are high right now. Even worse? Food may not even be safe to eat. Due to spending freezes enacted by DOGE, FDA workers have been forced to slow or even stop routine testing of food products for dangerous bacteria and chemicals. 

And the Agriculture Department has fired hundreds of workers — including those who inspect imported foods and crops. Without these workers, food is at risk of rotting at ports of entry — which will shrink our food supply and drive prices even higher.

If you can’t afford to buy any food right now, you’re not alone. While food banks are scrambling to keep up with soaring demand, DOGE is cutting nearly $1 billion from crucial USDA programs that help feed the hungry.

Two: DOGE is making natural disasters more deadly.

It’s cutting hundreds of jobs at the agency that houses the National Weather Service, which warns us about extreme weather and studies the climate.

And if your house is destroyed in a natural disaster, you’ll have a harder time rebuilding it. 

That’s because DOGE has cut more than 200 employees from the already-strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency and frozen more than $100 billion in grant payments. Without these FEMA grants, communities like Los Angeles and Asheville, North Carolina will struggle to rebuild in the wake of devastating disasters.

Three: DOGE is making it harder to travel — and more dangerous.

All of this is bound to stress you out. Why not take a trip to clear your head — perhaps to one of our beautiful national parks? 

Well, DOGE has even cut 1,000 workers from Americans’ favorite federal agency: the National Park Service. These cuts have caused long wait times to enter national parks, reduced park hours, and put the parks at risk of falling into disrepair. Few staff are left to clean up trash, maintain wildlife health and water quality, and help mitigate fire risk.

If you do decide to make the trip, be warned: DOGE cut 10 percent of workers at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the agency that keeps our roads safe. And it cut 400 workers from the Federal Aviation Administration, many of whom maintain vital flight equipment and support air traffic controllers.

Four: DOGE is making it more likely that you’ll get ripped off.

If you have a bank account, credit card, or have ever had to undergo a rental background check, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has had your back against financial predators. Now it’s essentially gone. 

In 2023, the CFPB returned more than $100 million to Bank of America customers after it found the bank was illegally charging junk fees, withholding credit card rewards, and opening fake accounts without customers’ knowledge. That’s just a chunk of the nearly $20 billion the agency has returned to consumers since it was founded in 2011.

But because of DOGE’s attacks, the CFPB can’t keep you nearly as safe from scams. 

It’s already dropped at least nine cases against financial predators under its current acting director (and Project 2025 author) Russell Vought. And it’s beginning to roll back rules that would have saved consumers billions of dollars every year — such as capping credit card late fees at $8.

Five: DOGE is harming veterans who have protected you.

DOGE has already fired 2,400 employees from Veterans’ Affairs and is plotting to fire 80,000 in total — many of whom are veterans themselves. It has also canceled hundreds of contracts, which have caused delays in clinical trials for veterans battling cancer, increased wait times at mental health centers, and put veterans’ health care access at risk. 

Six: DOGE is effectively cutting Social Security.

Even if you don’t receive Social Security right now, your parents’, grandparents’, or other loved ones’ benefits are at the mercy of Musk’s chainsaw. The Social Security Administration is closing offices all across the country and firing thousands of workers who provide services to recipients.

Customer service call times have skyrocketed, with reported wait times of four to five hours. Website crashes have increased and some low-income seniors and disabled people have been mistakenly told that their benefits were suspended. 

Seven: DOGE is cutting services to enrich oligarchs like Musk.

Musk claims that DOGE cuts are necessary to save taxpayers money, but he’s not interested in cutting anything that lines his pockets.

He’s set to make a pretty penny from the government’s coffers. His corporations were already some of the biggest government contractors, but while DOGE was gutting the federal workforce, SpaceX received a whopping $5.9 billion contract from the Pentagon.

And DOGE has made cuts to at least six agencies that were investigating, or previously fined, Musk’s corporations. 

That includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has multiple active investigations into Tesla. These firings mostly targeted staff overseeing the self-driving technology that Tesla has been trying to roll out for years.

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So, at the end of all of this chainsaw-induced chaos, what are we left with?

These cuts are barely saving anything, and the disruption they’ve caused far outweighs any savings.

Musk has already backtracked on his “savings” goal from $2 trillion down to $1 trillion and, most recently, an expected $150 billion. That’s just two tenths of one percent of the federal budget. 

All the government services you are losing are for almost nothing.

That’s because DOGE cuts were never really about saving the government money — they were about benefiting a small group of billionaires.

What DOGE is trying to do is help clear the way for tax cuts that will predominantly go to billionaires and their corporations.

So what can you do about it? Demand Congress stand up to Musk and protect the essential services we all rely on. 

Thanks to massive public outcry, the Social Security Administration has already walked back its wildly unpopular plan to cut phone services.

We have the power to fight back. 

Our government is supposed to serve everyone, not just billionaires.

Donald Trump wants you to think that he’s bringing back the “Golden Age” of economic prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s.

But in reality, he’s dragging us toward something else. The Gilded Age of the 1890’s.

Pop quiz. Which of these would you prefer?

Dirty meat? 

Or meat that's safe to eat?

Deadly working conditions and no weekends off?

Or safe working conditions and spending time with friends on a Saturday?

If you picked dirty meat and deadly work conditions, well, then the Gilded Age is the choice for you!

But seriously, nobody wants this, except apparently, Donald Trump. 

That’s because the Gilded Age was dominated both economically and politically by a privileged elite — largely at the expense of everyone else. 

You want to know the main difference between Trump’s Gilded Age and the prosperity of the 1950s? Worker power. 

During the Gilded Age, organized labor was weak, corporations were largely unregulated, and inequality was rampant.

In the 1950s, the opposite was true. Thanks to the efforts of progressive reformers and organized labor in the first half of the 20th century, workplaces were safer and workers gained more bargaining power.

By 1954, 35% of American workers were union members, corporate taxes were around 50%, and the top marginal tax rate on the wealthiest Americans was 91%.

In the three decades that followed World War Two, America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen. During those years, the earnings of the typical American worker doubled, just as the size of the American economy doubled.

The country, while still imperfect, shrunk inequality dramatically. 

That is exactly what Trump and his Republican allies want to roll back. He wants the rich to be richer, unions to be weaker, and everyone else to be easier to exploit.

So next time you hear him talking about how much wealthier Americans will be, thanks to him, remember that he’s not talking about you.

Every day it feels like there’s a new emergency under the Trump regime.

But what’s the common denominator here? It’s Donald Trump! 

HE is the national emergency! 

Since taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump has declared eight national emergencies to justify his agenda.

[ALT: Since taking office on January 20, 2025, Trump has declared multiple national emergencies to justify his agenda.]

Trump declared foreign trade a national emergency, using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, to raise tariffs to levels not seen since the 1930s.

Now, Americans face higher prices for cars, groceries, clothes, and other goods — and millions have seen their retirement savings plummet with the stock market.

He declared immigration a national emergency, using the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to authorize mass deportations — even though we’re not at war.

Now, innocent people with no criminal records are being shipped off to a brutal foreign prison WITH NO DUE PROCESS — in some cases because of their tattoos or their hats.

The State Department, under the guise of “national security interests,” is disappearing college students with legal residency, lawful visas, and no criminal background — simply for exercising their right to free speech.

Trump is even toying with the idea of deporting American citizens to jails in El Salvador…

Meanwhile, Trump is eliminating America’s capacity to respond to real emergencies by gutting crucial agencies that respond to our most pressing problems. 

Like the National Weather Service — which warns us of severe weather. 

And the Federal Emergency Management Agency — which helps us respond to natural disasters. 

And the Department of Health and Human services — which responds to pandemics. 

The United States has plenty of real challenges — some of which Trump promised to address.

[TRUMP: Prices will come down. You just watch, they'll come down, and they'll come down fast.]

Instead, he’s ignoring them to manufacture fake emergencies. Why? To further expand his power and to scare people so much that they’re  afraid to speak up. Along the way, he’s subjecting millions to real harm.

But we cannot give in to his intimidation — because giving in to intimidation only invites more of it.

Instead, we must protect the vulnerable people who are being targeted by this regime. Speak out against Trump’s deportations. Fight to protect the right to free speech. Support the unions and other activists fighting Trump’s executive orders in court. And take to the streets in peaceful protest. 

Tyranny is possible only if people submit to it. The Trump regime cannot control us through fear and intimidation if we are energized, mobilized, and organized.

This is a time for all of us to fight back against America’s real national emergency: Donald J. Trump.

Is a potato cartel spiking the price of your spuds?

According to a recent lawsuit, four of the largest potato processors in America have been accused of running a rotten potato price-fixing scheme.

This tater trust, which controls 95% of the potato market, allegedly colluded to raise prices on all sorts of potato products you probably buy regularly — like frozen fries, hash browns, and tater tots. According to the suit, prices rose by 47% over the past two years, even as input costs for the companies dropped.

That’s no small potatoes.

This sort of scammy price-gouging happens frequently across the entire U.S. food chain. And it’s largely due to a lack of competition.

Like the potato cartel, just four companies in the United States control: 85% of beef processing. 82% of fertilizer production. 80% of corn seed distribution. And 69% of grocery sales.

These companies don’t have to worry about losing customers because those customers have so few choices. 

The result? Corporate monopolies get rich, and we pay the tab.

If we want to get to the root of high grocery prices, we must take on corporate power.