Yeah, Trump is "draining the swamp" all right...
1) Firing nuclear weapon security workers, and now trying to rehire them.
2) Firing scientists tracking and studying avian flu in US agriculture, and now trying to rehire them.
3) Destroying USAID, which is a vital projection of US "soft power" that gives the nation influence around the world as a hedge against Chinese and Russian encroachment. All gone. Now the nation's adversaries can move in and fill the vacuum. And of course there's the humanitarian angle: people and communities working with USAID personnel took a gut-punch, and kids are dying. So glad to see MAGA is loving that. Num num!
4) USDA inspectors who make sure meat is free of contaminants and potentially fatal bacteria have been fired, and they were short-handed already (my wife worked as a USDA inspector). Meat packing plants may have to shut down and herds culled if there aren't enough inspectors to go around to oversee production. Ranchers and meat packing companies are not happy, but hey, MAGA gets some happy-making partisan brownie points because Trump has "owned the libs."
5) Social security offices, already stretched thin with long waiting lists, are getting shut down. The elderly and disabled are so thrilled to be denied essential services that many of them have been paying into their whole working lives so that MAGA Cro-Magnons can gloat.
6) Cancer research and medical research in general: axed. Some programs that were already paid for were scuttled, and the money won't be refunded. Other studies, ongoing for years and just weeks from completion, have been canceled—a total loss.
7) IRS workers fired by the thousands, which of course is an open invitation for tax dodging and white-collar crime to have a field day. Thought the GOP was all for "law and order" but guess not. Obviously the hyperwealthy benefit the most here. Mom and pop? Not so much.
8) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decimated. NOAA weather data is used by meteorologists, media organisations, commerical forecasting services and other companies to inform the US public about the weather. The agency produces the latest information on temperature, precipitation, air quality, UV index, humidity and more. Think AccuWeather can take over? Not really: private, for-profit weather services poach the NOAA's data to make their "product."
All of this is nothing short of an existential disaster, even for ordinary citizens such as myself. Many of the thousands of scientists and engineers being fired will be happily taken in by other countries, and I expect many of them will do so. A terrible brain drain. US leadership in science and research is being throttled, vital social services such as Medicaid and Social Security are under dire threat, hundreds of billions of dollars are being wasted by savage, disorganized cut-downs of well-oiled research and development agencies and projects. It's almost too much to take in, and without any doubt whatsoever—all partisanship aside—what is happening is an absolutely frightening calamity.
The federal government certainly could stand for being restructured, modernized, and made more efficient, but just vindictively swinging a wrecking ball into its support structures and trusting that somehow the pieces will work themselves out without too much death and deprivation occurring as a result is like expecting that alphabet soup poured into a bowl will produce a haiku.
So, jump for joy all you want, MAGA rubes. Speaking for myself, I'm gravely worried. I see where we stand now in a broader historical context, and this is the way dictatorships and/or civil wars have gotten started in more countries I'd care to count. It's sickening.