Most of us, beyond the age of 40, have friends who have attended several Bruce Springsteen concerts. My wife has attended 15. I have a friend who claims to have attended 20. There is something about “The Boss” that has made him the most popular and revered rock star of our times.

Last Friday, I was perusing Truth Social and learned that the President of the Free World, the Chairman of the Kennedy Center, disagrees. More about that in a bit. First, what did Springsteen say to earn the President’s wrath?

 Last week, Bruce gave a concert in London, the first on his European tour. Introducing his song, Land of Hopes and Dreams, Bruce commented, “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”  He added, “Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”

Later in the concert, Springsteen commented: “The last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you, and me. It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between democracy and authoritarianism. So, at the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other.”

Bruce also, in introducing his song, My City of Ruins, told the audience: “In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now… in America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.”

If you are not familiar with Bruce Springsteen, you are missing a lot. He deserves a statue in Trump’s planned “Garden of American Heroes.”  I imagine The Boss’ Born in the USA playing at 90 decibels at the opening of the Garden. I can see Springsteen shaking the hand of a future President and maybe even singing a song in the Garden.

Our President doesn’t share my appreciation for The Boss, maybe because the President believes there can be only one boss in America. Maybe it is because Springsteen has captured the soul of America so well in his catalog of songs. And maybe because Springsteen is far, far more popular than Trump. (So is Taylor Swift.)

Apparently, Karoline Leavitt, the uber-loyal White House press secretary, read about Springsteen’s comments and reported them to Trump. Or maybe the woman known in the White House as the Human Printer, Natalie Harp, printed out an article reporting Bruce’s comments and gave him a copy. In any case, once Trump heard what was said about him, he exploded in a most un-presidential way.

Trump posted this attack on Springsteen on Truth Social:

“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics, and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. If I weren’t elected, it would have been GONE by now! Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is “dumb as a rock,” and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out “prune” of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just “standard fare.” Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”

Trump is outraged that someone would speak ill of the President of the United States. Didn’t Trump, his two older boys, and his closest aides do that for the entirety of the 2024 presidential election? Apparently, what is good for the Goose is not good for the Gander.

And apparently, Trump is no champion of the first amendment, at least as Bruce Springsteen practices it. 

The President also does not envy Springsteen’s “atrophied” skin.

And, of course, Trump closes his social media post with a threat. Is Trump hinting that he might seek some form of retribution against Springsteen? (If you can threaten former FBI director Jim Comey for publishing a photo of seashells forming the number, “8647” because he believes the image may incite someone to attempt to assassinate him, anything is possible.)

Towards the end of his concert, Springsteen assured the audience that, “We’ll survive this moment.”  He added, “Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”

Bruce, I’m praying for you and the United States. If given the choice of The Boss and Donald J. Trump being president, I vote for Bruce. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.

 

Sometimes I forget the sun will rise tomorrow even if the news is bad. Yes, we live in challenging, uncertain times that find Americans deeply divided and worried. And when I say worried, that means everyone these days, even the President’s supporters.

But I also find that reading and writing about what I call “troubling news” doesn’t do much to change that news. I can post the highly offensive image of the President dressed as the Pope on the web and get lots of approval from people of like mind. But I don’t think that image troubled many of the President’s supporters. They apparently think the picture is funny and enjoy seeing “libs” complain about it.

So, maybe it’s time to take a break, at least a short one, from complaining about things and do two things.  First, revisit the beauty of the Eastern Shore that surrounds us. Instead of complaining about Trump or Musk, spend some time looking out for a mallard like the one that waddled up to my front door last week. That duck made me smile more than anything on MSNBC last night. 

On Sunday morning of this week, there was a torrential downpour for over an hour. Water gushed in torrents off my roof, and I watched it from the sanctuary of my screened porch, nice and dry, a cup of coffee in hand. I loved watching the rain, and not just because we needed rain on the Eastern Shore. I knew that with what seemed like a few inches of rain, there would be more flowers coming. And I like green grass better than brown.

After the sky cleared, the world looked clean. I imagine dirt and everything else bad being washed away when we get a hard rain. Sunday was no exception. The TV stayed off long after the storm had passed—and stayed off for the rest of the day. I read the newspaper, but interspersed reading about the tariffs while looking through the screens of our porch at an osprey make a low pass over our house. 

Spring is a season not just of flowers and birds, but also of hope. Spring tells us that the bleakness of winter is not permanent and that, eventually, good triumphs over bad, although calling winter evil is a bit of a stretch given the joy that winter’s first snowstorm brings to most of us.

Life, regrettably, is not about the weather or the four seasons. It includes what our community is doing (or not doing), how we treat one another, and whether, as a community, we remain resilient enough to stand up and do something that we cannot do to the weather—help guide it to the “right destination.”

That brings me to the second thing we should do to replace just complaining about Trump. Do something. I don’t mean anything violent, of course. I will say that watching television or scanning the web for the next stupid thing President Trump has done, is not the answer. 

This morning, I stumbled across the image of Trump with a Star Wars light sword. That image is a distraction from the things that are important.

The thus-far not-too-happy 2025 is now more than a quarter over and, to date, there are few signs that the trouble and uncertainty of 2025’s first quarter won’t last the rest of the year. But there’s hope. In the last few weeks, people are simultaneously starting to ignore the Trump administration’s bizarre activity and starting to do things—things like attending town halls, writing letters, supporting groups that are registering voters, encouraging good people to run for office, and talking to each other to reinforce the truth.

The sun will rise tomorrow, but today’s clouds need help leaving town. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) disappointed me this week by telling constituents he supported Trump but wasn’t so sure on the tariffs.  I should not have been surprised, even a little.  McConnell, if nothing else is a party loyalist, someone I call a “congenital Republican.”  The term is not a compliment.

While McConnell and close to every other Republican in Congress should be considered lost causes, I am encouraged by the growing numbers of people who have reassessed Trump and determined his return to the White House is a national crisis.  I wonder if the campaign to end Trumpism—and I mean ending the “rule by intimidation and Executive Orders” administration of Trump—is possible.

I say it is.  The dangers and recklessness of Trump are self-evident. It is there for anyone who tries hard enough to see.  The answer, my friend is blowing in the wind.

What is that answer? There are, I hope, many ways to find it, but my recommended way for Trump skeptics looking to do the right thing, is to ask themselves a few yes or no questions.  The answers point to the only response—to reject Trump and join the effort to persuade others to do the same.

Here are the questions:

Do you support the Constitution? A no answer means that President Trump’s autocratic approach to government, which entails defying courts, ignoring statutes, and intimidating the legislature into acquiescing in the president dismantling the government is contrary to the Constitution.  The Constitution provides for three branches of government, not one.  The president cannot ignore court orders and laws passed by Congress and say he loves the Constitution.  To do so is a lie. A yes answer means rejecting Trump.

Do you support the Rule of Law?  This question may seem duplicative but is raised by President Trump’s campaign of terror and intimidation against undocumented migrants as well as against his perceived political enemies, and the imposition of penalties on law firms, institutions of higher education, and individuals without due process of law.

Where do you start with documenting Trump’s utter disdain for the Rule of Law?  Start with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man sent to El Salvador “by administrative error” by the Trump administration.  The administration now, belatedly, is offering “proof” that Garcia was not in the U.S. legally and was likely a member of a gang.  Democrats, and even a Fox News commentator, are saying, “prove it.”  The Rule of Law suggests that Garcia should have his day in court.  That means returning him to the U.S. and resolving the questions regarding his legal status and deportation in a court of law.

Apart from Nazi-like deportation of persons deemed enemies of the state, Trump has unilaterally, and illegally, imposed penalties on institutions of higher education, law firms, and individuals.  In each case, Trump has listed grievances but not put forth evidence of violations of law or contracts.  

Do you believe Free Trade contributes to peace?  Trump’s tariff policies are turning much of the world into America’s enemies.  Yes, countries are now coming to Washington to seek revisions to Trump’s tariffs, but that should not be mistaken for accepting the legitimacy of the “reciprocal tariffs.”  The bitter taste of American arrogance will last a long time.  And if some countries—say, China—determine that an acceptable compromise with the U.S. is not possible, the trade war will turn into another type of war.  Why take the risk of this happening?

Do you believe in Democracy?  Remember that Trump told an audience in 2024 that if he won the presidency, future elections may not be necessary.  What did he mean?  President Trump has demonstrated a rejection of the will of the people, as executed through an election, in the most dramatic way possible—when he lost, he rejected the loss and sought to overturn the election and remain in power.

Amazingly, Trump keeps talking about the “theft” of the 2020 election.  Given that he is back in the White House, that isn’t necessary.  So why is he doing it?  Because he anticipates that voters will eventually reject his autocratic rule and demand the return to democracy.

Ask yourself my four questions.  Try to be honest.  If you don’t believe in three separate but equal branches of government, you must reject Trump.  If you are not okay with the White House violating court orders and denying due process to individuals and institutions, you must reject Trump.  If you believe the U.S. is a member of a community of nations and not the self-appointed world empire, you must reject Trump.  And if you still believe Trump won the 2020 election and that “elections are rigged” against him, see a psychiatrist immediately after you reject Trump. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.

 

Less than three months into what will be a long four years, President Trump has changed America. Things that were abnormal, and in some cases unimaginable, are now a new normal. Things like accidentally sending an unjustly accused man to a harsh Venezuelan prison, telling America there is nothing to be done about returning the deportee to America, and then defying a court order when told to “facilitate” a return. And, of course, recklessly imposing mammoth tariffs and precipitating an eleven billion dollar decline in the value of the stock market.

And then there is Trump hawking “Teslers” in front of the White House, taking a lap in the presidential limo at a stock car race, and redecorating the Oval Office in garish gold.

I ask myself, sometimes daily, what is going on? Is there a rhyme to Trump’s reason? Maybe I do have some strain of Trump Derangement Syndrome because I can’t find one. I simply reassure friends who claim that “Trump is not right (in the head)” that “this can’t go on.”

This month, after more than eleven weeks of endless Executive Orders, some on paper straws and water pressure in shower heads, as well as angry retribution against perceived enemies, movement is being seen. Trump is shedding supporters. Yes, even true believers, some of them at least, are starting to question Trump.

I wish I could credit the Democrats for this welcome and hopefully-not-too-late movement away from Trump. Some in the party, including Bernie Sanders, AOC, and 25-hour speechmaker Senator Cory Booker, deserve some credit, but the President himself is paving his road out of town. He’s doing it by prompting questions.

Questions are often the best means of finding the truth, but they also are a powerful weapon against autocracy. And people are asking questions. Lots of questions. Questions that Trump, and even Press Secretary Karoline Levitt, a woman friends from New Jersey have called “a piece of work,” can’t answer. Questions like, “Why are you defying court orders?”

Here are a few:

Trump met with right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer (look her up if you are not familiar with her), who advised the President that two national security advisors were not “loyal.”  Trump fired them. Is the President taking personnel advice from Loomer? Why?

Who in the White House developed the formula for Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs?” The tariff rates have been described as unrelated to tariffs but instead reflect, in part,  trade deficits with individual countries. Why were tariffs imposed on an uninhabited island, but not on Russia? And, most importantly, now that the U.S. (and world) economy has been shaken to its core, why is Trump willing to precipitate a world depression?

Is Trump aiding or participating in insider stock trading? Anyone knowing that Trump was about to “pause” most of his tariffs could have bought stocks low and sold them high the next day. Senators Schiff and Gallego want to know who knew what when. They smell a rat.

Why did President Trump appoint clearly unqualified people to cabinet-level offices, especially RFK, Jr.? Check the spread of measles across the south and southwest, especially Texas. My personal question: Why haven’t you fired RFK, Jr.?

And what about “Signalgate?” Why did President Trump’s National Security Advisor accidentally add an Atlantic Magazine writer to the text exchange? More importantly, why did none of the other call participants confirm who was on the text exchange?

And what about retribution? Law firms are being extorted for representing clients and, just this week, a former Trump official has been accused of treason for questioning Trump’s policies during the President’s first term. My question:  Will Attorney General Pam Bondi seek an indictment for someone who disputed Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen?

Trump is sinking in the polls but seems too busy golfing to notice. Or too busy redecorating the Oval Office in gold, watching Elon Musk dismember the federal government, and otherwise engaging in behavior that is reminiscent of Benito Mussolini, the man who in addition to forming a disastrous alliance with Hitler, sought to take Italy into a golden age.

The people—Trump supporters and everyone else—are starting to realize what Trump’s America is. It is an America where Social Security offices are closed or woefully understaffed; where veterans are losing access to essential services; where federal support for education, the arts, and humanities is being slashed; and where Trump is making Canada and Mexico look elsewhere for friends.

Dare I say it? This nonsense cannot go on. Mr. President, your policies are impacting people’s everyday lives, including the people who voted for you.  Do you have no shame?

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s List on Medium and Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.  

Until recently, I had assumed that there were Tesla dealerships on the Eastern Shore even though I had never seen one. There aren’t any. Tesla Cybertrucks are still rare on the Eastern Shore. Still, you are more likely to see a Tesla sedan than a Buick or Cadillac. Were people driving to Bethesda to buy their cars? 

Remember when Teslas first came on the market? Buying one was doing something to fight climate change. Hollywood stars traded in their Mercedes sports cars, and sometimes their Toyota Priuses, to be seen stepping out of a Tesla when making their entrances onto the Oscars’ red carpet.

I remember thinking about buying a Tesla, but, given recent events, I’m sure glad I didn’t. I’d prefer not to drive a car with “F*ck Elon” painted on its side. 

Want to see a Cybertruck? If you can’t get into the Fox News parking lot, try a California junkyard. There, in addition to the Cybertrucks that caught fire with no assistance from an anti-Trump or anti-Musk “lunatic,” you will find Cybertrucks torched in protest to DOGE and Trump. 

President Trump,  confident that he knows unfairness when he sees it, expressed outrage against people venting their anger and attempting to draw attention to what they see as an authoritarian takeover of government, by vandalizing Teslas. 

Said Trump, “I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!”

The President has directed the FBI and the Department of Justice to track down those responsible. Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are on the case. 

There is irony in Trump’s anger. He pardoned his “January 6 Patriots,” who Trump described as peace-loving people venting their anger after Trump lost the 2020 election. Trump convinced them that the election had been stolen, which, in Trump’s mind, justified their violence against police officers and the Capitol. The anger of the people protesting DOGE is different, right?

President Trump is now considering compensating the “January 6 Patriots” because they were treated “so unfairly.”  A concert by the now world-renowned “J6 Choir” can’t be far behind.

The Tesla vandals (Musk, Trump, Kash Patel and others call them “terrorists”), like their J6 counterparts, illegally engaged in violence. I don’t see the difference between them and Trump’s “J6 patriots.” Both groups deserve punishment for vandalism, but the President now celebrates one group while subjecting the other to a nationwide hunt, with harsh punishment promised.

Elon Musk was surprised when the vandalism against his cars started. He told Fox News: “It’s actually disadvantageous for me to be in the government, not advantageous. My companies are suffering because I’m in the government.” Musk added, “Do you think it helps sales if (Tesla) dealerships are gonna be fire-bombed? Of course not.”

Musk is, of course, right, but while I join him in condemning the violence, I am not about to pull out my violin. He has received over $38 billion in government contracts and, as head of DOGE, will receive more, which is one explanation of why he joined the Trump administration as a “volunteer.”

Musk will suffer millions of dollars in losses in the stock market value of Tesla, but he is the world’s richest human. The economic harm he will suffer is nothing compared to that of the tens of thousands of federal employees that Musk and his DOGE team members have fired. 

Those of us on the Eastern Shore who have friends who worked for the federal government know that DOGE has caused more pain and suffering than the Tesla vandals would cause Musk if they torched every Tesla ever built and every Tesla dealership. There just isn’t any comparison. 

I hope the FBI crackdown on violence against Teslas will be successful. Nobody wins when violence is tolerated. The Tesla vandals are not heroes. If arrested, just like the January 6 insurrectionists, they should be prosecuted for their crimes and not be pardoned by the president or compensated for being “treated very unfairly.”  

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack. 

Mr. Dean will be on travel next week.  His column will return on April 16.

 

Can someone help me contact Taylor Sheridan? You know, the creator of Yellowstone, 1923, 1883 and other hit miniseries involving the Dutton Family. I want to pitch an idea to him. My series would be “Trump 2.0: A House of Cards,” not the most original title, but it fits.

My brainstorm arrived after I had already completed a draft column for this week titled, “Is the Trump honeymoon over?”  I speculated that the public, even here on the Eastern Shore, was starting to question some of what Trump and Musk are doing and realizes that America now finds itself in the middle of a “clusterf**k.”

That column, written only yesterday, has been superseded by events. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally included the editor of The Atlantic on a group text chat about war plans focused on Yemen’s Houthis. The editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, received full, detailed plans for the proposed military action and heard a discussion of actions, including this comment from Vice President Vance: “I just hate bailing out Europe again.”

Pete Hegseth, a ready-made character for a Taylor Sheridan mini-series if there ever was one, is now in a heap of trouble, not only for his role in the chat, held  on a non-government message service called Signal, but for lying about the incident after The Atlantic published Mr. Goldberg’s report on it. 

The incident, likely to be remembered as one of the worst security breaches in recent history, is not the first stumble for the new Trump administration. It is their 100th, with the mistakes coming days after Trump won the election. Remember Matt Gaetz?

By the way, when President Trump was asked about the breach, he said he hoped Mike Waltz had learned his lesson. Really? Nobody is going to be fired? 

But I digress. My point isn’t just that the Trump administration is making mistakes, it is how they are making them. That is where Mr. Sheridan might be interested. Think about the drama and the colorful characters.

The new President strips security details from his predecessor’s family and continues to ridicule the ex-president four months after defeating him.

The President’s marriage appears to be a sham, with the First Lady living in New York and the world’s richest man, a wild Nazi-saluting self-described “genius”, basically moving into the White House.

The President is selling cryptocurrency and other junk while in office. Meanwhile, Netflix pays Melania Trump $40 million to do a biopic of her.

The President appoints a “border czar” who proclaims, “I don’t care what the courts say,” after he ignores court orders and rounds up suspected Venezuelan gang members and deports them with no due process. (The incident reminds me of the “train station” in “Yellowstone,” and that is not a good thing.)

The President’s son rubs cocaine on his gums while watching Elon Musk’s Starship lift off. (Part of the rocket later exploded.)

The President’s ex-daughter-in-law starts dating the man who was once the world’s greatest golfer.

The President redecorates the Oval Office with lots and lots of gold. He also awards Boeing a $20 billion contract for a new jet fighter dubbed the “F-47.”

Then there are the minor characters. One is the son of a Democratic Party icon who sells his soul to Trump after he unsuccessfully runs for president. The son is a conspiracy theorist and former heroin addict. Another is a former governor who disclosed, in her autobiography, that she had once shot her dog in a quarry because it was not easily trained.

You get the idea. The open credits could show a handful of Trump’s buildings and golf courses, a Tesla Cybertruck, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller being himself, and a stack of Executive Orders.

It would not be difficult to find subplots for the first three or four seasons of the series. You have the President’s criminal past, including the failed insurrection, lots of sex scandals, lots of extortion, including against universities and law firms, and, of course a dozen or so Republican legislators, including an extreme-right wing anesthesiologist now representing Maryland, kissing Trump’s behind as the world’s economy (thanks to tariffs) drifts to recession and chaos and Trump himself drifts into insanity.

We should be grateful that people are finally organizing to say “Enough!” to Trump 2.0.  It is not too late to save democracy, but it won’t happen unless the Trump Show is cancelled. 

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s List on Medium and Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.  

 

April 26 is Oxford Day in Talbot County, a celebration of one of the most historic and scenic small towns in the United States. I will be there, but how many more Oxford Days will there be? Oxford is subject to flooding every year, and it is getting worse.

If the Trump administration has its way, don’t bet on Oxford’s future—or anywhere else on the Eastern Shore. The President is surrendering in the war on climate change. He is changing America’s side in this existential fight—his Environmental Protection Agency administrator, former Congressman Lee Zeldin, is launching an all-out assault on the regulations targeting climate change.

Said Zeldin: “We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more.” The “more” is to increase corporate profits for his supporters, even at the cost of places like the Eastern Shore.

Zeldin will kill the “climate change religion” by “reconsidering” a long list of existing EPA regulations.  The list is a long one, but worth reading:

• Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0) 

• Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry (OOOO b/c) 

• Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS) 

• Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program) 

• Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines, and standards (ELG) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG) 

• Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG) 

• Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule) 

• Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules) 

• Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding) 

• Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule) 

• Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS) 

• Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs) 

• Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze) 

• Overhauling Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon” 

• Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion) 

• Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI) 

• Ending so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” which the Biden-Harris Administration used to expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program’s traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all State Implementation Plans 

• Working with states and tribes to resolve massive backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve (SIPs/TIPs) 

• Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events) 

• Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC) 

• Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule) 

Anyone remotely concerned about the increase in hurricanes, fires, tornados, and, of course, flooding should be worried about the wholesale “reconsideration” of dozens of regulations intended to slow down climate change. 

The Trump administration could have announced a review of select regulations with the goal of making them more efficient. The President and his all-too-eager EPA director chose a different path—they want to “drive a dagger through the heart” of efforts to respond to climate change.

The Eastern Shore should be worried. 

I wonder whether Andy Harris will support Trump’s effort to emasculate the EPA. I bet you know the answer.

J.E. Dean writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s List on Medium and Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.