The kind of “diet” supported by the writer of the “Put it on a Diet” in a July 19 Mining Journal letter to the editor is akin to throwing an entire family in jail because one of them broke the law.

The Trump/Department of Government Efficiency cuts to government agencies and programs are an enforced starvation that will lead to unnecessary early deaths of many honest, hard-working, struggling American citizens.

This is not a diet. It is outright federal government-sanctioned murder by denial of necessary services. For a President of the United States who professes belief in a god and Christianity, it is one of the least Christian actions this POTUS and his minions can perpetrate against American citizens.

Sure, there is a percentage of fraudulent people on government programs who need to be found out, kicked off the program and legally penalized appropriately.

This does not in any way justify treating all recipients of government aid as fraudulent, nor calling entire government agencies and programs as being full of waste and corruption. It does not justify blindly cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, HUD and other help needed by low-income, hard-working American citizens struggling to get by.

Sure, there is waste and inefficiency in the federal government, and most American citizens undoubtedly support a more efficient and cost-efficient government. However, a Trumpian government mistreating, abusing and firing its employees without legitimate cause and not following established legal and established agency procedure is just wrong, may be illegal and lacks the honesty and integrity we should expect from our government.

Under former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, the government workforce was reduced by over 350,000 jobs legally, following proper procedure and rather quietly, while bringing the government debt down to ZERO. Under Trump, there is a lot of flash-bang noise, MAGA fanfare and a further deepening debt.

The $150 million purportedly saved by DOGE in the first 100 days works out to less than a measly 50 cents for each of America’s more than 300 million citizens. Mere chicken feed compared to the expenses Americans will bear for Trump’s golf outings and birthday parades during his second term.

The increased debt achieved by the “Big Beautiful Bill” will far outweigh any cost savings obtained from Trump-sanctioned cuts. The biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s tax cuts are the rich. Trump will shower most of us unrich with a tiny, chicken-feed tax break in an attempt to make us and his MAGA base believe that he is a good guy. I envision Trump laughing all the way to the bank while USS America sinks uncontrollably into an ocean of deeper debt.

Our founding fathers certainly knew the dangers of a too powerful and controlling central ruler. That is why they laid out the Constitution to define the powers of the executive, congressional and judicial branches of our government.

Trump failed to place his hand on the Bible while swearing to protect our Constitution during his inauguration. Trump has publicly stated in an interview that he does not know if he is required to follow our Constitution.

Trump is using threats and fear to intimidate others into compliance with him and to gather and centralize all power into his office. The founding fathers also foresaw that it would require the attention and diligence of American citizens to maintain America as a true open democracy.

I envision Trump as the 9/11 hijackers on the flight crashing into a Pennsylvania field, with American citizens the passengers. In the infamous words of a passenger on that plane, “Lets go!” but nonviolently in this case.

— Bryan Hill, Skandia