No writer imagining a fictional foe hellbent on sabotaging the U.S. could have come up with a plot as devastating.

Last edited Sat Apr 11, 2026, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Motives of psychopaths may be beyond the understanding of those of us who are sane, but the effects of every action -- every single action -- is sabotage.

Sabotage the rule of law, on which all else depends. Corruption of the DOJ, openly violating the law and the constitution, openly violating civil rights, to the point of murdering people, open corruption and abuse of public offices across the executive branch, and on, and on.

Sabotage entire economic sectors with the imposition of illegal tariffs.

Sabotage research and scientific progress. Cuts and unlawful impounding of NIH and NSF funds, arbitrary restrictions on international students, and political targeting of entire areas of research has created an unprecedented crisis. Over 95,000 employees left federal science agencies by 2025. According to a poll by Nature, over 75% of scientists were considering leaving the U.S.

Sabotage health by directly attacking a public health infrastructure that needed bolstering, not destruction, making health insurance -- already far too expensive -- impossible for millions, cutting Medicaid, corrupting Medicare, cutting CHIP, cutting WIC, SNAP, and school nutrition programs (with the added benefit of putting farmers out of business), attacking life saving vaccinations, and more.

Sabotage national well-being and identity by seeking to destroy the most basic truth of America -- that we (with the exception of Native Americans) are a nation of immigrants. Immigration is a massive driving force in our economy and the contributions of immigrants widens our horizons. Our congress failed to enact the sort of immigration reform that we have needed for decades, including a path to citizenship for the undocumented who have been here for years, a truly robust asylum system, and more legal paths that would undermine the kind of exploitation of undocumented labor this nation has become addicted to. But as broken as the immigration system has been, the current insanity is horrific. Seeking to end birthright citizenship and purge immigrants -- whether they are here legally seeking asylum under system so backlogged it is no system at all, under TPS status, or undocumented -- is an act of sabotage.

Sabotage agriculture, with trade wars that are closing overseas markets, ending food bank and school nutrition markets, decimation of the workforce through the cruel and insane attack on both documented and undocumented immigrants, criminal war of aggression on Iran disrupting fertilizer supplies, and on and on.

Sabotage the security and prosperity made possible by more than 75 years of values-based alliances with nations that have a common interest in safeguarding democracy, individual liberty, and a rules-based international order. We have never been more vulnerable as the principle source of our security, intelligence from allied nations, has been cut off (you can bet we are getting no warnings from those the felon has told to go to hell).

Sabotage international security, by withdrawing support for Ukraine against Russian aggression -- aggression that will extend to the whole of Europe should Ukraine fail, and intentionally alienating nations with whom we share common interests while giving aid and comfort to the illiberal forces and nations that seek to destroy us and our growing list of former allies.

Sabotage everything AI touches (and that is pretty much everything) by dismantling the nascent regulatory framework that could have protected us against the frightening consequences we are now vulnerable to.

Sabotage and corrupt the national information environment by promoting propaganda and lies, taking over major media outlets, protecting social media conglomerates from liability for the damage done by failure to moderate, and on and on.

Sabotage education at all levels with direct attacks on universities, illegally dismantling the Department of Education, diverting funds from public education to privatized and Christian Nationalist schools.

Sabotage everything we stand for by starting a criminal war of aggression, targeting schools and hospitals in densely populated neighborhoods (see NYTimes) and unleashing all the terrible consequences of attempting to destroy a country that has more that twice the population of California and more than four times the land mass of that state. The world, and as the aggressor, our nation in particular, will be suffering consequences of this for decades.

And so much more. The sabotage in one area has tentacles of destruction that reach into others, compounding the damage in those areas, and beyond.