A version of this story appeared in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
Labor Day, according to the Department of Labor, is “an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers.”
In the days leading up to this year’s celebration, the Trump administration informed thousands of additional federal workers that it will be dissolving their union.
It’s an expansion of a move undertaken back in March to utilize President Donald Trump’s executive authority and citing national security law to argue that people who work in the US Patent and Trademark office, the National Weather Service, NASA, and hydroelectric workers across the country, among others, are too vital to national security to be able to organize.
That’s the stated reason, at least. The move is also in line with the Trump administration’s general hostility toward unions and its efforts to strip as many federal workers as possible of collective bargaining rights.
As usual with Trump’s audacious use of executive power, there are lawsuits. But the March executive order, which affected a large portion of the unionized federal workforce, has been allowed to proceed after some early setbacks in court.
Back on Juneteenth, the still-new federal observance of the end of slavery, he complained on his social media platform that American workers have too many days off.
It’s costing the country too much money to have all these holidays, the president argued. Certainly it’s true that when people don’t work, they’re not productive on that day, but CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald took a look at the research, some of which suggests having holidays and time off ultimately makes workers more productive in the long run.
Trump himself has not taken significant time away from the White House this month. Presidents traditionally spend at least a week or two in their preferred vacation spot during the month of August. During his first term, Trump would go to his golf club at Bedminster in New Jersey in the summer. This summer, he has golfed almost every weekend, but mostly stayed in Washington, where he has overseen turning the Rose Garden into a patio area and plans to build a $200 million ballroom.
He has also still spent plenty of his time in front of television cameras.
He had no public events on Friday, but on Tuesday he held a marathon three-plus-hour Cabinet meeting in front of television camera, although more than a working meeting it felt like an opportunity for his Cabinet secretaries to heap over-the-top praise on his leadership.
On Monday, he spoke to reporters multiple times at length from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. He also held a joint meeting, including a public session in front of cameras, with the Korean President Lee Jae Myung.
Productivity is in the eye of the beholder. Trump has certainly produced a fair amount of video content this week. But he might consider spending less time in front of cameras and more time tending portions of the federal government that seem to be teetering.
His HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s efforts to undermine vaccines have set off chaos and resignations at the CDC, where Director Susan Monarez was ousted, apparently in a dispute over vaccine policy, despite having been confirmed by the Senate less than a month earlier. Other officials have resigned in protest.
During his own confirmation, Kennedy promised not to throw out US vaccine policy. But his actions since being confirmed, like replacing everyone on a key advisory panel and restricting on-demand access to the Covid-19 vaccine for much of the country, have felt that way.
At the Federal Reserve, Trump has tried to fire Governor Lisa Cook over an alleged IRS infraction involving her apparent claim of multiple primary residences, although she has not been charged with any crime.
There is what feels like a slow-moving purge of top military officers at the Pentagon underway.
And Trump’s $1-million-a-day callup of the National Guard to patrol Washington, DC — including low-crime areas like the National Mall — has DC residents scratching their heads. But it’s a warning to Americans in other cities, such as Chicago and Boston, that there could soon be rifle-toting Guardsmen in their cities too.
His administration’s decision to halt work on offshore wind farms that are close to completion, purportedly made for national security reasons, is the opposite of productive since it could drive up energy costs and put thousands of jobs in Rhode Island and Connecticut at risk.
Trump’s supporters will look at all of this and celebrate the breakneck pace of his second term. Other Americans would prefer he take Labor Day off and plan a vacation.