Editor,

Elon Musk appears to have departed in his role as head of DOGE, although he continues to influence the president and has abolished many of the agencies that had investigations pending against him and his various business holdings. The “savings” that were supposed to come from his efforts appear to have been vastly overestimated and many of the actions, closures, firings etc. have been reinstated by courts and other watchdog agencies.

One of the most egregious actions of DOGE and make no mistake, Trump and the Republican Party, had been the closure and seizure of the United States Institute for Peace. This is an independent non-profit agency founded by Congress and the Reagan Administration in 1984. It is essentially a “Peace Think Tank.” The reason given for the closure was it was “no longer needed”. This is telling in and of itself and indicative of the overall lack of thought going into the majority of DOGE actions. Musk and DOGE literally seized the $50 million dollar building destroyed its IT structure and erased over 40 years of its records and research. They also seized the endowment that funded the agency and replaced its board with Trump loyalists.

All of these actions were deemed illegal by the federal judge involved in the case and will ultimately have to be reversed and reinstated. Meanwhile, the building and its mission were abandoned and considerable damage occurred in the interim time. Next will come the lawsuits, understandably and the taxpayer will be liable for these and likely hundreds of other lawsuits from people and organizations disrupted and destroyed by Musk and company. This is an administration rife with abuse, unethical in its actions and intent on the destruction of the rule of law and democracy as were know it. Fasten your seatbelt, this is far from over, more chaos and destruction to come.

Charles Niedzialkowski

Oak Harbor