Trump’s ‘secret plan’ to cut government waste was never a secret at all

For decades, Democratic leaders have called for the federal government to be made more “efficient”; for the federal workforce to be dramatically cut; to go after “waste, fraud and abuse” within the government; and to ensure the hard-earned money of American taxpayers was being respected and protected.

There is literally old film or video of Democratic presidents and leaders calling for the policing, reorganization and reduction of the behemoth that has become our federal government.

One person who paid close attention to their warnings, admonitions and recommended gutting of the federal government and federal workforce is President Trump.

One would think that these various Democratic leaders and their allies from the left and within the mainstream media would be ecstatic that someone as successful as Trump — with a deep understanding of the inner workings, as well as the pros and cons, of massive organizations and corporations — was not only paying strict attention but taking copious mental notes. Not so much.

Apparently, Trump was never supposed to take them at their word. Could it be that when all of those well-known Democrats were calling for massive cuts in the federal workforce; when they were calling for accountability for the multi-billion dollar waste, fraud and abuse taking place within the government; and when they were calling for the government to use the hard-earned dollars of the American taxpayers expeditiously and wisely, they were simply playing to the cameras and fishing for votes? Shocking.

Today, the Democrats and much of the media seem outraged that Trump took all those Democrats at their word. More than that, they are angered because he is actually doing what they pretended they were going to do for decades. And worst of all for these gaslighting Democrats and members of the media is that Trump is exceptionally qualified to cut the fat out of a federal bureaucracy that is doing great harm to our nation.

In 1928, the nation was introduced to a phrase attributed to President Calvin Coolidge: “The business of America is business.” That is correct in so many critical ways — and no one gets that more than Trump, who created an iconic global business empire.

While the “business of America” is business, for most of our lives, we have not had a true, successful businessman occupying the Oval Office — much to the detriment of the nation.

Former President Joe Biden was a 50-plus-year career politician; Barack Obama seemed to be created in Chicago and then sent forth by the Democratic Party; George W. Bush played at business before engaging in a war that took hundreds of thousands of lives; Bill Clinton was a longtime student before becoming a longtime politician; George H.W. Bush was a professional diplomat before becoming president; Ronald Reagan was an actor, organizer and spokesperson; Jimmy Carter was in the Navy and struggled as a peanut farmer; Gerald Ford was mostly a professional politician; Richard Nixon the same.

If, in so many critically important ways, the “business of America is business,” then does it not make sense that a real businessman — and not a career politician who never worked in the real world, never started a company and never met a payroll — operating from the Oval Office could sustain, grow and protect the business of America based on his experience and success?

In recent years, Democrats have incessantly pushed “identity politics” before merit and real-world experience. This strategy has exposed them to tens of millions of Americans as being incapable of sustaining and growing the “business of America.” A “business” which — as those voters know — pays every single bill and entitlement in our nation. If the “business of America” fails, they fail.

And, as with any massive, out-of-control business where, via deliberate obfuscation, fewer and fewer are privy to what is truly going on, you are also going to have purposeful massive employee redundancy, corruption, fraud, waste and abuse. Potentially in the trillions of dollars with respect to the “business” of our federal government.

Knowing that, Trump came into the Oval Office on Jan. 20 with a “Secret Plan” to deal with it and permanently transform the federal government for the better. That plan was, again, to literally take those famous Democrats at their fake words while using his decades of global business success to get the job done.

Just three months into his term, Trump and his team have marched into a target-rich environment of waste, fraud and abuse and have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. In a recent Cabinet meeting, DOGE leader Elon Musk reported that his group is set to save the government more than $150 billion in cuts to waste and fraud in fiscal 2026. And that is but the tip of a gigantic and toxic iceberg.

The “business of America” has not been a successful business for decades. Trump is rapidly reversing that self-destructive trend across multiple sectors — the failing federal government being but one.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.