Trump Fires Watchdogs Who Track Public Corruption While Claiming He's Fighting 'Waste, Fraud, and Abuse'

In his first week in office, Donald Trump fired more than a dozen inspectors general in defiance of federal law. The independent inspectors are tasked with monitoring government agencies to search out evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse—and also corruption.

CBS News reports:

The Trump administration purged at least a dozen federal inspectors general overnight Friday, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News. It is an unprecedented move that will likely result in legal challenges. …

Mark Greenblatt, who was nominated to be inspector general of the Interior Department by Mr. Trump during his first term, told CBS News in a phone interview Saturday that he was “stunned” when he received the notification.

Asked why he thinks Mr. Trump fired him and others, he responded, “The most charitable interpretation is that he doesn't believe in our independence or our fairness. The least charitable interpretation is that he wants lackeys to rubber stamp what he's trying to do.” …

Federal law requires the White House to give Congress a full month of warning and case-specific details before firing a federal inspector general.

Inspectors general are tasked with finding waste, fraud, abuse and misconduct in the federal agencies. They would be tasked with monitoring President Trump's agencies and appointees.

This should increase our skepticism about whether Elon Musk’s DOGE program is really about “waste, fraud, and abuse” given that Trump has fired all the people who are supposed to monitor those things. Instead, this looks like an attempt to prevent anyone from discovering corruption.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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