Chaos, Corruption and Cruelty Report

This week in Trump's Administration: Waging war on Signal, cuts to the IRS, and cruel deportations

Mar 26, 2025

The three pillars of the Trump administration are chaos, corruption, and cruelty.
To track this in real-time, I’m launching a new weekly series highlighting one example from each category. I’ll continue publishing deeper dives into key issues, but this series is meant to be a rapid-fire spotlight—brief, sharp, and focused on the worst of what this administration is doing each week.

A quick plea. MurMur remains free because understanding our current political crisis is vital. If you find our breakdowns clear, practical, and helpful in navigating tough conversations, please support our mission by becoming a paid subscriber. Your subscription allows us to continue providing essential information to everyone.

Chaos: They’re waging war the way my friends plan drinks?

Sometimes, the chaos is by design. Other times, it's just raw incompetence.
This week? Pure, unfiltered incompetence.

Senior Trump officials—including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—accidentally included a journalist in a Signal group chat discussing top-secret military operations. Meritocracy, baby!

You’ve probably seen the headlines, so I won’t rehash every detail. But here’s what matters:

This is not normal.
There are clear protocols for discussing military action. And Signal is not on the list. It’s explicitly off-limits for sensitive or classified information.
One of the officials was in Russia during the chat.
Any national security intern could tell you that if you're using WiFi or Bluetooth in Russia, the Russian government is listening.
This weakens our alliances.
Allies won’t share intel if they think we’ll leak it into a group chat.
The administration claims “no classified info was shared.”
That’s false. And even if it were true, it doesn’t matter. The Espionage Act criminalizes the “unauthorized retention and dissemination of sensitive information that could undermine U.S. national defense or aid a foreign nation.” Texting war plans qualifies.
Why Signal?
Because it’s outside FOIA. No metadata. No message history. The VP, SecDef, and DNI are so desperate to avoid accountability that they’re willing to jeopardize American lives.

Corruption: IRS Cuts That Let Billionaires Off the Hook

~~President~~ Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed IRS staffing by 20,000. That decision alone could cost the U.S. $500 billion in lost tax revenue.

Let’s do the math:
For every $1 invested in IRS enforcement, the government gets back about $6. These cuts are the financial equivalent of setting money on fire.

DOGE’s verified savings are about $7 billion. Compare that to $500 billion in taxes we won’t collect—mostly from wealthy Americans who can afford tax lawyers and loopholes.

Here is the bottom line:

If your taxes come from your paycheck, these cuts don’t help you.
If you’re a millionaire with self-reported taxes, congrats—DOGE made your life easier.

This isn’t fiscal responsibility. It’s a handout to billionaires, paid for by the rest of us.

Cruelty: Legal Immigrants Deported and Detained in El Salvador

Our government is rounding up legal residents with no criminal record and sending them to a prison in El Salvador known for starvation. No trial. No judge. No lawyer.

Take the most recent case:
A Venezuelan man, fleeing government death squads, spent two years navigating our legal system. He was finally granted legal status. But when he landed in Houston, an immigration officer flagged him as a gang member—based solely on tattoos he got as a teenager. Tattoos that immigration officials had already reviewed and cleared.

His girlfriend was deported immediately. He was sent to a prison in El Salvador—no hearing, no legal process, no chance to plead his case.

When a federal judge tried to stop these deportations, the Trump administration ignored the ruling. Now, they’re threatening to impeach the judge.

Yesterday, Speaker Mike Johnson even floated eliminating entire courts that rule against Trump.

This is Trump’s America. And yes—this should terrify you.

There’s no evidence these policies make us safer.
There’s no legal or moral justification for deporting people without a hearing.
This isn’t enforcement. It’s cruelty by design—meant to scare anyone who dares to seek refuge here.

And let’s be clear:
This isn’t just an attack on immigrants. It’s an attack on due process, checks and balances, and everyone who believes in our Constitution.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?