“Waste, fraud, and abuse.” I would be happy if I never heard those three words uttered by a Republican politician again. This moronic administration has been doing so much in the name of saving money and “cutting billions in waste, fraud, and abuse.” Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but President Trump and Musk are costing us money. They’ve lost more money than they’ve found. How? Let me count the ways.
Tourism: $90 billion/year
Trump’s immigration policies and the unconstitutional, illegal, and inhumane things they’ve done in the name of mass deportation is projected to cost the country about $90 billion in tourism revenue. People living and working in tourist destinations are going to lose their jobs. Businesses that depend on the revenue from tourism are going to close.
Countries around the world have issued travel warnings for the United States. Our country is now a dangerous, unsafe place to visit. Why? Let me tell you about the incidents that have raised the alarm.
German Tourist Spent a Week in Solitary Confinement
A young German woman was detained in San Diego after she didn’t make a hotel reservation in advance. (I’ve gone to the beach several times during the busy season when hotels are full. We just go and find a room at a super cheap rate when hotels have rooms they can’t fill or that are available due to last-minute cancellations.)
Because she had come to the United States without a place to stay while visiting, ICE agents arrested her and she was taken to an immigration detention center. She said she was held in solitary confinement for a week and it was horrible.
Such hospitality! Our country is so welcoming and happy to have tourists spend time and money in our country! (sarcasm).
Woman from the UK
This is the headline for the story of a UK woman who was arrested by ICE and put in a detention center: “I was a British tourist trying to leave the US. Then I was detained, shackled and sent to an immigration detention centre.” You can read her full story on The Guardian website.
She isn’t the only UK citizen visiting the U.S. who has ended up in a detention center. There are too many stories to include in this post. (I may do a separate article that goes into more detail on the tourism aspect of this story next week.)
For now, we’ll move on to the next item on my list of ways Trump and Musk are costing us money: Mass deportation.
Mass Deportation: $96 billion/year
Deporting the hardworking immigrants in this country who do all of the essential jobs Americans won’t do—for low pay, is yet another way Trump and Musk are costing us money and destroying the economy.
They work outside in fields all day under the hot sun picking and harvesting the fruits and vegetables Americans eat. In the beginning of Trump’s second term, ICE had started staking out Florida farms in order to arrest undocumented immigrants as they came to work. That caused workers to stop showing up. Citrus farmers in Florida were panicking. Fruit was rotting in the hot sun, wasted, because there was no one there to harvest it.
We’re not only losing workers to do these jobs, but also the income tax revenue our government takes out of their paychecks.
Undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes in 2022. They fund our Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security programs, even though they will never benefit from those programs. Trump is losing billions in yearly tax revenue by kicking out the hard workers that make this country strong. But that isn’t all of the damage mass deportation is causing.
Housing Crisis
We are experiencing a housing crisis in this country caused by multiple factors all at once. Private equity firms are buying up single-family homes so they can rent them to families instead. There’s also a lack of inventory. In some of the big cities, there are more people than there are homes. When there are more people trying to buy a house than there are houses available to buy, the prices are driven up.
We desperately need to build more homes. If more homes are available, prices will go down. In order to build houses, construction companies are needed. Because of the same ICE raids at farms in Florida, people stopped showing up for their work on construction sites as well. The labor is only part of the issue Trump’s mass deportation is causing.
DOGE announced last week that they had gone into the Social Security system and marked the social security numbers of every immigrant as “deceased.” Without that, they can’t pay taxes. If Trump’s not kicking out our essential workers, he’s blocking them from paying taxes. Just another way that Trump and Musk are costing us money. But that’s still not everything.
IRS: $8.3 billion/year
Trump and Musk are costing us money by cutting federal workers at the IRS. Thousands of workers are going to be cut from an already inefficient agency. Experts have estimated that the loss of thousands of workers at the IRS will cost the government $8.3 billion/year in lost tax revenue when Americans decide not to file their taxes since there aren’t any cops on the beat.
The Brightest, Most Innovative Scientists are Leaving
75% of the scientists who answered a recent poll said they’re considering leaving. Rolling Stine called it the “brain drain.” NIH researchers pointed out that a lot of their work has aided the creation of life-saving medications.
Trump has cut billions in research grants and funding. He’s also fired thousands of our best scientists from the NIH. Hundreds of thousands of scientists are leaving the “anti-science” country and going to countries like the Netherlands where they’ve created a program to welcome American scientists and researchers.
Other countries are doing the same. Without the funding to continue their research and colleges like Yale shutting down their research departments due to funding cuts, these amazing scientists see no reason to stay in the U.S. I don’t blame them. The anti-science movement on the Right is growing. We saw how they treated Dr. Fauci. Of course the scientists would prefer to be in a country that respects them and values the incredible work they do.
Trump also halted a diabetes research study that had been going on for 30 years. Could you imagine 30 years of hard work attempting to help Americans only to have your work thrown out like trash?
Trump and Musk are Costing Us More Than Saving: Trump Tariffs
Trump came into office with an amazing economy. The US recovered from high inflation and were coming in for a soft landing without a recession. Our economy was the envy of the world. The Stock Markets hit a new high every day.
He took that amazing economy and destroyed it with his Trump tariffs. Inflation is now going up, Americans’ 401K retirement accounts are gone, and recently, the markets had the single worst day since 1932—The Great Depression. Prices are going to go up. Retailers like Home Depot, Walmart have warned Trump that Americans are going to see bare shelves in two weeks if he doesn’t stop.
He didn’t and he hasn’t mentioned any plans to do so. Car dealerships are now running “Pre-tariff prices” sales, urging buyers to buy now before prices are up 25%.
Fascism and a Constitutional Crisis
Along with the variety of ways in which Trump and Musk are costing us money, there is an effort to destroy the Constitution. The administration has ignored the right to free speech and the right to due process.
They have attacked judges and ignored court rulings, moving us toward a Constitutional crisis. On Friday, in their most flagrant authoritarian move yet, the FBI arrested a judge in Wisconsin.
The rest of this article is just me expressing my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It was a venting “word dump” I did while writing this article and I decided not to delete those notes this time—to give readers a more intimate look inside my brain. 😉
JUST MY OPINIONS NOT GROUND IN ANY FACTUAL EVIDENCE
Trump is working for Putin to destroy American democracy, economy, it’s place on the world stage. China is taking over where USAID left off. Countries are trading with each other without us. Arresting students for antisemitism is just an excuse to eject all foreigners from the country.
They are ignoring our Constitution, our rights, the law, due process. Without the rule of law there is no exceptional country… the country of freedom, free speech, etc. is gone. Constitutional crisis is now. He arrested a judge. If a judge tries to hold them in contempt, U.S. Marshals are supposed to arrest them. You really think Pam Bondi will let them do that?
Trump is selling Trump 2028 hats now. He keeps saying he’ll run again for a third term. Honestly, go the f**k ahead. He will lose so goddamn hard, it’ll make 2020 look like a close race.
Author: Serena Zehlius, Editor
Serena Zehlius is a passionate writer and political commentator with a knack for blending humor and satire into her insights on news, politics, and social issues. Serena spent over a decade in the veterinary field as a devoted veterinary assistant and pet sitting business owner. Her love for animals is matched only by her commitment to human rights and progressive values. When she’s not writing about politics, you can find her exploring nature or advocating for a better world for both people and pets.
