Surrounded by coal miners, Donald Trump recently announced that he is going to bring back the flagging coal industry, calling the signing of several executive orders “historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers.”

“This is a very important day to me because we’re bringing back an industry that was abandoned despite the fact that it was just about the best — it is certainly the best in terms of power,” he said.

Trump must know that there is little chance for that to happen, and it has nothing to do with the nobility of the miners or their willingness to do back-breaking work for their families and their community. Most experts agree that cheaper forms of energy will be the end of coal.

Trump made the same promise to miners in 2016 when he was running for his first term. It was a political success then, winning him the support of miners and other blue-collar workers in swing states. But he never delivered for the miners.

Just like he never delivered on the promise that he made to autoworkers at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2017. Trump was in his first term when he traveled to the suburban Youngstown plant and told discouraged workers that he was going to create an industrial renaissance in the Mahoning Valley and save the autoworkers’ jobs.

“Let me tell you folks in Ohio and in this area, don’t sell your house. Don’t sell your house. Do not sell it. We’re going to get those values up. We’re going to get those jobs coming back, and we’re going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build brand-new ones. It’s going to happen,” he said.

Those who believed him got played. Then they got burned when the plant closed forever. Some of Trump’s true believers would never make the connection, but it was clear that the workers were politically valuable to Trump and humanly expendable.

That is still true. Trump and Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is wrecking the lives of many federal workers, along with the future and safety of many of our citizens.

Musk has repeatedly lied about his findings. As reported by CNN in February under the headline “Eight ways Elon Musk has misled Americans about government spending,” Musk admitted that “some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected.”

But there has been no correction of Musk’s major errors. He falsely claimed that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and fired so many employees that the recipients of benefits are at risk. He has grossly overstated his alleged savings by billions of dollars. He has gutted food safety and cancer research.

He has falsely stated FEMA disaster funds were diverted to provide housing for illegal immigrants. He cut $900 million from a program that tracks the progress of American students and the effectiveness of our schools. He fired the nuclear safety staff and the avian flu researchers.

And the Trump-Musk partnership continues to play fast and loose with the lives of American workers. In a 2024 conversation aired on social media, they laughed about Musk summarily firing workers who complain about working conditions. “I love it,” Trump said. “You’re the greatest.”

But there is hope. Peter Wehner, a longtime conservative Republican, said it well in The Atlantic last week: “Ruthless efficiency can help in the dismantling of democratic institutions, but having an administration filled with freaks and fools can impede that effort and catalyze public disaffection and even resistance.”

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