At least in large part, these are his motivations. What an awful excuse for a human being.

Yes, and he's petty. Amazingly petty. Limiting access to a border library by Canadians. Doesn't care how much hurt and pain he passes around, doesn't feel it. There's plenty of low level clerical + workers in the government who are just doing their low pay jobs and are very hurt and stressed when a paycheck stops. One of the pluses of being a government worker is stability - you might not have the best pay, but it's steady, can be counted on, nice benefits, and now that stability is gone. Would it have been so terrible to just put a RIF on where you didn't replace people who left? Like under Obama? That was probably out just because Obama did that.

Cutting the IRS is already starting to show in money receipts. People aren't filing and paying as quickly so we're projected to lose 500 billion - not sure what the time period is. There are people to whom the IRS is just another game to play, and they want to play it and win. There's going to be a time period where the odds of them getting caught are going to be low, so start cheating now and them gear back up 2-3 years before the fully trained auditors come back on line. If they cut collections we're really screwed - don't cut those people.