RICHMOND — What’s the endgame? In the chaotic first 100 days of the cruel moves of the President Donald J. Trump version of government, the endgame seems invisible, perhaps because no one has one.
For those who think Project 2025 will set the nation on a golden road to the castle, the hobgoblin of “unintended consequences” will keep arriving on a broomstick. Listen up.
Jettison thousands at the already understaffed IRSThe endgame: Tax revenue will be reduced, because no human will be there to follow up when the electronic brain notes an error or inconsistency. That means revenue lost. Short-sighted result: Taxpayers ecstatic and sleeping at night.
Stock market woes caused by tariffs
The endgame: It’s one thing to lose a few bucks, another to see your IRA account shrink more rapidly than a cashmere sweater in the dryer. And the 401(k) that you and your employer contribute to? It might be more fasting than fun in retirement. The 529 you set up for your grandchild is sliding (though tuitions won’t go down).
Tariffs on Canada
The endgame: In addition to alienation of a best friend, there is the tariff on aptly named newsprint, imported from Canada for newspapers, threatening to bankrupt those already on the edge. Canadian tourists will go elsewhere because of the insult of the “51st state” plan. Then there is the countering Canadian tariffs on bourbon and oranges (products of two red states).
Tariffs on Mexico
Veggies and fruits will become less affordable. The tiny print on the label for an orange, lemon, zucchini, box of lettuce or pint of raspberries often reads “Product of Mexico.” The endgame could be shortages, price hikes and paychecks running out before week’s end.
Cancellation of federal funds
promised to museums, libraries
The endgame will be cuts in special programs such as helping with English as a second language, providing free computer access and preserving community history. Libraries expand sources of accurate information and contribute to culture, literacy and the arts — for free.
Cancel Head Start
In this particularly cruel act, the endgame is children who were already a little behind being deserted, entering public school without the years of nutrition, learning, play and parental involvement that Head Start offers. These kids, perhaps born on a rocky road, will find it even bumpier in preschool and kindergarten. The feds gave birth to Head Start — and now are aborting it.
Snip SNAP
The endgame is hungry children and hungry farmers. SNAP provides not only federal help with grocery shopping but more recently allowed people to use their credits at farmers markets where new customers make a difference. Not to mention the value of fresh produce in the tummy.
Bring back coal, lay off mining inspectors
For the people, the endgame is less good air, since coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels. For the miners, the endgame is less safety, as 34 Mine Safety and Health offices have been closed and many workers connected to miners’ health are gone from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Diss vaccines
The endgame: We’ll get sick. That tight Texas community of religiously anti-vaxxers have proved that if a medium-sized group decides not to vaccinate, it is a matter of time before we’ll have outbreaks of measles, mumps, polio, small pox and more. If the anti-vaxexrs don’t get sick, it’s because so many of us did the shots.
Diss people with autism as unemployable sad sacks
Error, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The autistic include Hans Christian Andersen, Anthony Hopkins, Elon Musk, Emily Dickinson, possibly Albert Einstein — none of them slouches as achievers. Also included in those ranks is Susan Boyle of “Britain’s Got Talent” fame. (If Washington is getting you down, listen to her “I Dreamed a Dream.” You’ll feel better.)
Hire incompetence, fire competence
The government endgame is yes-people and no divergent opinions, discussions or knowledge of how to start each day of the enormously complicated thing called government. Meanwhile, many of the career people with know-how are gone. Loyalty is the watchword: kiss the ring, brown-nose the teacher and bend the knee.
The endgame is defined as the final stage of some action or process, commonly applied to chess. Making America great seems to involve swinging a wrecking ball at all the pieces on the board, while promising the pain will go away, the sky will be blue again, groceries will be cheap and all other kinds of prosperity for American citizens — no crime, no fraud, no waste.
Being a pawn is not the American way. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should get off the phone, and Vice President JD Vance should heed Pope Francis’ words spoken hours before his death.