Trumpworld calamities that keep me up at night | Paul Chiampa

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President Donald Trump, left, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)AP

Elissa Slotkin, the junior senator from Michigan, says Democrats should not be scared. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” I am going to beg to differ with those Democrats. I think we have a lot to be scared of.

The Defense Department is being run by a part-time Fox TV host, Pete Hegseth, who has been credibly accused of sexual harassment and drunkenness. He has absolutely no experience in running a huge bureaucracy. Hegseth had an insecure internet line in his office so he could use the Signal app, where he posted sensitive details about a military airstrike in two chats that each had more than a dozen people.

He suspended arms sales to Ukraine without presidential approval. He fired many of the top-ranking generals at the Pentagon. Imagine if we ever got into a real war with this clown at the head of the Defense Department.

FEMA is being dismantled at the same time that climate change is getting worse. There may not be a straight line between FEMA and the Texas flooding catastrophe, but it is only a matter of time when we have a national emergency, and all fingers will point directly back to the White House.

FEMA itself is being run by an individual with absolutely no experience in disaster relief and recovery. And he reports to the head of Homeland Security, puppy killer Kristi Noem, the former governor of South Dakota, a state with a population of 924,000, who also has no experience in handling disasters.

At the same time, the government is disavowing climate change, rescinding tax credits for renewable energies and promoting coal, oil and gas.

The Justice Department, which is run by a Trump sycophant, Pam Bondi, now says that there is no Jeffrey Epstein client list after she said there was a list. The Epstein client list conspiracy theory was promoted by none other than the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, and his underling, Dan Bongino.

This doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in either organization, which are the two most important departments of government for dealing with domestic crime. Apparently, the only crimes they are truly interested in pursuing are those committed by the supposed Biden Crime Family, which, in their minds, rivals the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchesi, Bonanno and Colombo families.

Patel called the FBI “an existential threat to our republican form of government.” He described FBI employees as “political jackals” who tried to “suffocate the truth” in order to rig the 2020 election for Biden.

Bongino, not to be outdone, said the FBI used confidential informants to stir up the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. It should go without saying that there is absolute no evidence to support any of this hogwash. Patel and Bongino have forced out many career FBI agents with the expertise and experience to prevent real crime, political corruption and foreign espionage.

Tulsi Gabbard is the director of national intelligence. Her experience in intelligence prior to her being nominated for the position by Trump was zero. In addition to her lack of experience in intelligence, Gabbard had made flattering statements about autocratic leaders, such as Syria’s ousted president, Bashar al-Assad, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. She defended Edward Snowden, who leaked NSA secrets in 2013.

Gabbard, rather than being laser focused on present day threats to our country, said she was releasing a series of reports that showed a “treasonous conspiracy in 2016” by top Obama administration officials designed to harm Mr. Trump.

You probably know the story of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is being run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The HHS is responsible for the CDC, the FDA, the NIH and Medicare and Medicaid, among other agencies. As of July 15, 2025, a total of 1,309 confirmed measles cases had been reported as compared to almost none in 2020.

The FAA faces several challenges, including an air traffic controller shortage, aging technology and a decline in public confidence in aviation safety. These issues have been compounded by recent incidents and near misses, raising concerns about the agency’s ability to maintain safe and efficient air travel.

The head of the FAA reports to the Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, who has no obvious qualifications for the job other than being married to a Fox & Friends weekend host.

Trump wants to fire the head of the Federal Reserve so the next guy will lower interest rates. Anyone who knows anything about economics, which Trump obviously doesn’t, even though he spent two years at Wharton, knows that you don’t create huge deficits and lower interest rates when the economy is “the greatest economy of all time.”

We will be throwing gasoline on a fire. I usually don’t make predictions, but I predict a major market reversal if and when Trump dumps Powell.

There is a lot more to be scared about. I haven’t even mentioned bitcoin, but you get the idea. If you are okay with all of this dangerous nonsense, sleep well. If not, give me a call. I am up.

Columnist Paul Chiampa of East Longmeadow writes twice a month.