We’ve seen how Mike Lawler highlighted and mischaracterized a single $3M expenditure by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to justify the abrupt shutdown of its $40B operation around the globe, including life-saving humanitarian aid. [See “A Case Study in Lawler” Parts One, Two and Three].
We see the consequences of that decision daily. Witness today’s headline: “Thousands are feared dead in Myanmar’s quake. Trump’s USAID cuts will cause even more unnecessary deaths.”
All of this human misery in the name of reining in government spending. Mike Lawler has been defending the chainsaw mission of his benefactor Elon Musk & DOGE since its inception.
“We have to go line by line through our spending and rein it in.”
Where is his voice on all of the money that DOGE is wasting on breakage as they fire and rehire, as they repair wreckage in the wake of ill-considered cuts? Where is his voice on all of the money being wasted by Trump on his vengeance campaign, going after enemies and cleansing the government of perceived DEI stains, which I guess includes any references to the Enola Gay . . . .
We’re early in the process here, but already the signs are not good. According to UBS’s chief economist, “the government cuts have mainly reduced job security and efficiency to date—government spending rose 7% [year-on-year] in February.”
As we watched Mike Lawler dig deep into USAID operations to find, highlight and mischaracterize one small project, it’s all too easy to spot examples of wasteful spending by Trump each and every day, even as we try to look away.
Today let me highlight just one:
“While flying aboard a C-17 from Joint Base Andrews to Stuttgart on February 10, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Bragg. The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge. This change underscores the installation’s legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation.”
Fort Bragg is the largest U.S. Army base by population. It was originally named for a notorious Confederate general named Braxton Bragg, labeled by some as “the most hated man of the Confederacy.” The name was changed to Fort Liberty in 2020 by Congress, through bipartisan legislation removing the names of Confederate leaders from military bases. Even Mitch McConnell said he had no problem “renaming the bases for ‘people who didn’t rebel against the country.’”
Trump, on the other hand, viewed this name change as part of the “woke” infection at DOD, which he is now determined to reverse. Towards that end, his minions found another veteran named Bragg to use as the namesake for the fort, invited his daughter to the name-changing ceremony, and paid tearful tribute to Private Roland Bragg with the proclamation that “Bragg is back!”.
Local military families have mixed feelings about the name reversal, not that it matters to Pete Hegseth. And of course the 2300 civilian employees at Fort Bragg await details on the announced cuts of 50,000 to 60,000 civilian DOD employees.
The cost of the name change to Fort Liberty was estimated at more than $6M. We’ll never know the cost of changing it back to Fort Bragg, given the lack of transparency by this administration. But we know that it will be millions. And this is just one of many MAGA name changes in the works, part of his grand cynical power play.
Line by line, Mike? Is this good value for the taxpayer dollar? Hello, Mike?
Rule of Lawler 