JasonM1
8078
536
6
Randy Erwin, President of The National Federation of Federal Employees to Trump:
"You better start obeying the Constitution"
Oct 11, 2025 4:55 PM
JasonM1
8078
536
6
Randy Erwin, President of The National Federation of Federal Employees to Trump:
"You better start obeying the Constitution"
TofuGolem
Republicans hate the Constitution because they hate America.
zeacorzeppelin10
Look at him standing in the rain!
idrinkcheapbeer
I can be emphatic as well. This isn't fire. This is fireworks.
Spanky93
How many faces did the Leopards eat during the shutdown?
RedSkizzers
It's time for a general strike.
InfocalypseRising
Oh, well, some guy said "you better do it." That'll show him.
pleaseuseotherdoor
Saying that to a guy who rage-tweets while watching TV at 2am might actually be more effective than you think.
KremlinOfAges
IIRC trump did not put his hand on the bible when he was sworn in this time, or am i wrong?
The thing was there, he just ignored putting his hand on it but like every other bullshit artist he did promise... simply ON nothing... TO nothing. Just 'trust me bro'.
bexxMaker
Reporters should talk to Trump like THAT!
Copperbrat
A man with huevos.
ItsACrazyWorld
tech he never really swore a oath on the constitution, he never put his hand on it. so imo he isnt really the president.
ChefHannibal
or... what? we've been watching them ignore it every day
IG1Fields
Start obeying the Constitution, or you’ll be on the receiving end of a strongly worded letter!
twatburglar
Seriously! Pass the damn bill already. We are a one income family of 4, with 1 in the oven yet. Our bank account is down to $700 to last us the next... ???? And with rent, utilities, food, car payments, multiple prenatal appointments, etc. coming up, we're pretty much f**ked!!! Plus, I'm getting real tired of seeing my husband all day long.
tzahtman
Trump's been ignoring laws since day one and hasn't gotten ugly for him yet so I doubt this will sway him.
MotoCanuck
He's taking money away from the army to pay ICE's inflated paychecks? I'm surprised ICE gestapo are even getting paid, to be honest.
ImGettinSatisfied
I like this energy. Everyone with a voice needs to harness this
sadurdaynight
Lot of angry words and posturing. No accountability, though.
psmith00
well, you have to consider that Trump thinks of himself as a King, the King of America. in that old system the King owned the whole country, its resources, its treasury and even its citizens. given that mind set, it's perfectly normal that he would consider the American Treasury to be his own piggybank.
TNSCLuotaMEa4fVN
But He doesn't want to!!!
IHateItH3r3
it's not going to stop until someone stops it, and no one is stopping it
CyberWizard252
We have all been demonstrating to big business for years that laws don't apply to them. Trump thinks of himself as a business man, and therefore believes that laws don't apply if he doesn't want them to.
TheGrumpyOldTroll
this dude, 2028
JadeNB1729
I appreciate he's saying it, and it needs to be said, but we already tried electing on the basis of "sounds good when angry." Give me a boring technocrat as president again. I don't need to like them, I don't need them to be charismatic or inspiring, I just want them to govern well.
StewedTomaters
It also needs to be said that the "speak softly, but carry a big stick" thinking only works when you're carrying a big stick. If you decide to never brandish it, you get what we have now.
OmenJones
The NFFE endorsed Biden in 2020. In 2024, they chose not to endorse either candidate. FAFO.
TheOvy
Endorsements often follow polling -- which is to say, nonpartisan organizations tend to endorse the person already winning. They probably got a sense that Trump was going to win, and didn't want to risk pissing him off and being retaliated against. Of course, Ross Vought couldn't give less of a shit, so that didn't pan out too well for the NFFE.
soupman17
You gotta understand, eggs were really expensive/s
sevenfingerman
LAMF?
kEMup
?
trancek
Leopards Ate My Face
kEMup
devasto
Love Ashley's Mom's Feet
losersmanual
Lick All My Fries.
FractalChainsaw
Luck Around, Mind Fout.
beenbannedb4
And yet many federal employees will vote Republican again and again. Note that the speaker went with the "both sides" shtick.
TI99Kitty
He said both sides need to tell Trump to obey the law. That's WAY different from "Both sides are bad."
mthrndr01
Outside our office, shortly before the early retirements and all the probationary employees getting fired, we did have one of those Trump sticker trucks, blue lives stickers, etc. Its gone now, don't know if they bailed or got fired though.
eion85
If there's one group of federal employees who could bring the whole country to its knees it's air traffic controllers.
If they all walked off the job it would take them decades to recover.
GRaffted
Another group would be those in military service read that their salary is also in danger because of the ongoing shutdown. But, I bet ICE salaries and bonuses won’t be in danger.
eion85
I certainly think recruitment is going to be a challenge for the military in the coming years.
bripi
Not true. Reagan faced this during his presidency. He fired all 13,000 ATCs that would not report to work. When they went on strike, the gov't started training their replacements *immediately*. Within 2 weeks everything was back to normal. This isn't the threat to the country we'd like to think it is.
eion85
That was nearly 50 years ago. Are you prepared to prove that conditions are substantially the same as they were in 1981?
bripi
Do I think things are different now than they were 50 years ago? Only a fool would say no. I am not saying that at all. I'm only stating historic facts. People clamoring about how the ATCs going on strike would destroy the country are being wildly optimistic about what would happen.
eion85
Your facts are... Selective.
It took a decade to restore staffing levels.
I'm not advocating a strike. An ATC strike would be illegal.
If the Trump regime didn't fear ATC workers not showing up for work they wouldn't be threatening them. They'd be showing them the door.
bripi
I didn't say staffing was complete after 2 weeks. I said the system was working normally after that amount of time. But that's because while the strike was happening the gov't was training their replacements. This gov't doesn't have that kind of foresight and i'm sure no one in it has spent time reading up on the situation in the 80's. I am *also* not advocating for an ATC strike, I'm just saying it would not likely be the apocalypse everyone is predicting.
UnluckyLunkhead
It would be fun watching AF1 in a holding pattern waiting to land.
eion85
I wouldn't expect that kind of impact, but it would be fun to see Republican politicians' flights all getting canceled due to it.
noReallyIamPrincessBob
I was thinking the same thing. They all need to walk off across the whole country. THAT would be more powerful than any armed resistance, and affect everyone.
eion85
ATC is already critically understaffed, so even if just a significant percentage of air traffic controls left it would add more strain to the system, resulting in further impacts.
I don't think anyone could blame controllers for leaving due to how shitty the Trump regime is treating them.
NKato
Seriously. It doesn't matter if you're going to arrest the ATCs for walking off the job - they're so critically important, you CANNOT arrest them. You literally fucking cannot. If you arrested even 5% of the ATC, your airspace goes to shit INSTANTLY.
bripi
Reagan fired all 13,000 that went on strike. There were something like 1,000 that broke ranks and scabbed. Read that again. Less than 8% of the available, trained, and qualified ATC were on the job. Within 2 weeks all flights were back to normal. This isn't the threat it's being played out to be.
sphericalworld
It was 11,000 not 13,000. Also they pulled in military controllers, retired controllers, etc. so it was far more experienced people than just this 1,000 number. The other crucial part is that the weather was good over most of the country. The ATC’s job is way easier when pilots can see and confirm things visually.
bripi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_strike NOT ACCORDING TO THIS
NKato
And air traffic back then wasn't as dense as it is today, which was a major factor. Today, these ATC could simply walk off the job and everything would grind to a halt.
Everything. There's not enough retired ATC who would be insane enough to take on that workload, and not enough military ATC to address the shortage.
The GOP would be so very badly fucked.
MediocreExtremist
well ... you better start organizing in masses and MAKE him obey the law. I don't understand how Americans still remain so passive. It's time to start handing out consequences
BrickSprickly
Because half are worried that the other half will start attacking them with guns
trekxtrider
How can we? Checks notes: They have the US military, we have protests.
FoxxoniusAugustus
The US military is 0 for 3 against opponents who use IEDs. Maybe stop thinking that protest is all you can do.
archon325
Then you've decided you lost already. The guy who grazed Trump's ear didn't have to go through the entire military first, you're telling yourself it's impossible as an excuse to not do anything. Even if it's an impossible fight, make them fight. Make them work for it. I'm a disabled Canadian, I can't fight your battles for you.
damogen
All those generals didn't seem particularly impressed by Trump and Hegseth. So I would say there's a pretty good chance they won't help him.
But hey, you can also just give up freedom and democracy without even trying to fight for it.
Emjayen
Well let's see, they did fuckall the first time, even after a goddamn insurrection by which time the orange and his clique should've been hung for treason. Then they fucking elected him *again* and now they have a fascist state rapidly collapsing and they're _still_ just watching as the Gestapo are now rounding up the untermensch. Don't worry though, I'm sure those strongly-worded letters will have an effect soon.
eion85
Consider that what you see reported in the media may not represent a comprehensive picture of the resistance efforts going on.
MediocreExtremist
At this side of the ocean we don't see much. That is a good indicator they're not making waves
Marsupialmessiah
Thats because all media in the us is owned by trump and gop supporting oligarchs, also a protest the disrupts too much will cause a lot of collateral damage, just wait for the air traffic controllers to start calling out sick
eion85
No, it really isn't, unfortunately.
nation543
Citizens would need to unite somewhere, and it would have to be multiple millions. It would have to be fast, and it would have to be coordinated, somehow. Until the US is considered a wartorn land, society still exists and therefore laws still exist - without a truly massive gathering, people are still subject to laws; we aren't politicians. People don't want to be in prison so they won't revolt unless they know there are no consequences (or a pardon, ahem, ahem J6)
MediocreExtremist
you are right. But the consequences are getting worse the longer they wait. And it doesn't need to be coordinated as much as it needs to sustain. That revolt will need to last a long time.
nation543
At this moment it would need to last 3 years.
A glimmer of hope that we have is that we're getting closer and closer to the House being under Democrat control. If we can obtain and control Democrat control in the House next year then Trump will be stifled in further attempts to fuck with 2028.
MediocreExtremist
no. If protest is successful things can go faster. Governments could fall at any moment, not only at election time
nation543
"Governments could fall at any moment,"
In this context, that would mean that The United States of America would have fallen. Imagine that headline. Putin would be rejoicing.