WASHINGTON — The president’s war with the nation is well underway.

Shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development was taking the smallest lamb from the flock. Other vital parts of the government may soon follow in a flash.

At least three departments face a strange Cabinet member in charge: Kash Patel at the FBI, Bobby Kennedy at Health and Human Services, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard overseeing national intelligence. Their Senate hearings were not pretty, a three-ring freakshow all in a day.

Patel portends chilling changes straight ahead.

Democrats in Congress watch, wide-eyed, and play defense while they feel “overwhelmed,” one senator said. The press chirps away at bits and pieces, lacking urgency about the full picture.

In the minority, Democrats can’t stop President Donald Trump’s juggernaut. No president has ever tried to seize so much political power.

Trump’s violent takeover of government failed on Jan. 6, 2021; this time, it’s a short, swift murder, causing a constitutional crisis. A coup by any other name.

USAID, our greatest exporter of goodwill, is gone just like that, supposedly swallowed by the State Department. With food and medical programs canceled all over the globe, adversaries will consider that a gift.

Trump and his nefarious accomplice, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, are doing the dirtiest of work. Musk’s words on USAID: “Time for it to die.”

Musk is let loose to skim — or skin — the skilled and expert federal workforce in medicine, climate, science, law, housing, weather, Treasury and Justice.

Trump and Musk are offering buyouts to all but seeking jagged cuts to the Justice Department.

Musk, an unelected “efficiency” czar, is also worming his way into confidential Treasury systems on aid, payments and financial records for citizens. Just like that. Swaths of federal employees are being locked out of their computers.

Usurping authority, Musk shoved the head of the Federal Aviation Agency out on Jan. 20, nine days before the tragic plane-chopper crash over the Potomac River, claiming 67 lives.

This is a terrible omen of the trouble Musk causes by applying his ruthless business practices, unchecked, to the public good.

Trump’s ranting about “DEI” — diversity, equity, inclusion — policy causing the crash was throwing stones in the face of grief.

Patel made a name by his public sympathy for the Jan. 6 convicted criminals. He ingratiated himself with Trump by writing a “King Donald” children’s book. He scorned the FBI, suggesting its building should close and become a museum. For now, senior leaders have been ordered to resign or be fired.

Patel may enforce Trump’s vow of “retribution” by a scourge of the law enforcement agency. Trump pardoned 1,500 Jan. 6 criminals, so you might think that was the end of it.

But no, Trump has already urged the FBI to take names and investigate the hundreds of lawyers and agents who worked on the Jan. 6 rioter cases in federal court.

Where I live, Washington, D.C., that amounts to a reign of terror among dedicated public servants.

Kennedy, who made a name with anti-vaccine claims, is, if confirmed, set to rule over the National Institutes of Health. He is seen as responsible for a measles outbreak in Samoa after a visit. In a strangled voice, Kennedy could not agree with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that vaccines do not trigger autism.

Cassidy, a doctor, declared he was “struggling” but backed Kennedy.

Gabbard, a Republican and a former Democrat, testified in crisp tones to the Intelligence Committee. She said she’d brief Trump personally every day. A military veteran and former congresswoman, she has contradicted U.S. foreign policy on NATO and Russia, and made an extraordinary visit to Syria.

Most troubling to the panel, Gabbard refused to brand Edward Snowden a “traitor.” He broke the law, she allowed, but in the past she praised his actions in exposing the nation’s vast surveillance system.

The common link between Patel, Kennedy, Gabbard — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who barely won Senate approval — is clear. They are Trump’s wildly unfit picks for their posts.

But that is precisely the point. Each loyalist would weaken their agency from within — and strengthen Trump’s iron grip on the government. That is their job.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.