To the editor: The headline “Trump administration backtracks on eliminating thousands of national parks employees” tells only part of the story. All you need to know about the Trump administration can be summed up by two actions in recent days.
The first is that probationary workers in the National Park Service have still lost their jobs, cleaning toilets and the like. The second is that the State Department may have been preparing to spend $400 million on armored versions of vehicles made by Elon Musk’s Tesla until the media found it in the small print of procurement documents.
Feed the rich, starve the poor — that’s the real headline of the Trump administration, both in word and deed, both intent and impact.
Next step: huge tax cuts for the rich because “they” have saved so much money decimating the federal government.
Joel Pelcyger, Los Angeles
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To the editor: The conservative friends of fired Yosemite maintenance worker Olek Chmura telling him this wasn’t what they voted for must not have been paying attention.
How many times did they hear Republicans say they wanted to shrink the federal government to a size it could be drowned in a bathtub? How many egomaniacs strutting on stage with a chainsaw do they need to see?
People like Chmura’s conservative friends should not try to assuage their conscience as their loved ones are laid off and national parks suffer with reduced staff by saying this isn’t what they voted for. No, this is exactly what they voted for.
Gordon J. Louttit, Manhattan Beach
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To the editor: The Times has published several articles on the “work” that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been doing.
Based on the department’s continuing drama and course corrections such as firing and then rehiring essential workers, I’m thinking “efficiency” should be left out of the name.
Christine Savage, Santa Monica
