In times like these: I work in procurement (and am horrified by our federal bureaucracy)

One rioter pardoned by Trump was later sentenced to life for an assassination plot against law enforcement officers.

Jul 26, 2025

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This piece is part of a series addressed to family and friends, looking at current political and social issues from the perspective of my studies and experiences. You can read the last part of this series here.

The views in this piece are mine and are not intended to represent the views of my employer.

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm not confident that my parents really understand what I do for work. Most of you probably don’t. Not that I'm sure it matters too much. I think my parents are mostly just glad their son the philosophy major has a job at all.

My parents were very practical people growing up. They knew in high school that they wanted to be doctors and this would secure a comfortable livelihood for their future children. I, the oldest of those comfortable children, would then spend my adolescence saying things like, "I want to pursue the higher things" and "you can do anything with a philosophy degree."

I might as well have been saying, "you can do anything with an anything degree," which to them would have been the equivalent of saying, "I'd like for you to fund four years of reading weird books and having conversations that .1% of the population would follow." That’s what they did. And for that I am eternally grateful. I'm obnoxiously passionate about ideas, which is why you all are getting this. You can blame my parents.

But just to clarify, again, I do have a job. An "actual job." One that pays a salary and provides me with health insurance. I even get stocks with my job.

I work for a global Fortune 500 company. I've established a career in legal and procurement. Procurement is responsible for overseeing everything that a company buys to run its operations, from construction to cafeteria services to HR software to strategy consulting. In my career, I lead contracting oversight for this area of business, helping to ensure that billions of dollars of "indirect procurement" buying is clear and protected. Throughout my career, I've stood up new teams, helped drive organizational transformations impacting hundreds of employees, overseen a global software transformation, and received both internal and industry awards for my work.

If I step back, all this feels kind of crazy to me. I never imagined that my career would go this way, that I would have this level of responsibility. I also can't believe I "sold out" to corporate America. (More on that in a later post.) But here I am. And I think I'm good at it.

I've also been responsible for starting a third party risk management program, which examines risks associated with other companies that we do business with, to help inform how those engagements are structured (or even if we do business with those companies at all). Having a certain degree of understanding of the global economy is an essential part of my job. Decisions driven by procurement can help stave off layoffs, enable essential innovations in research, and ensure we avoid corruption or other unethical behavior in our supply chain. One reason I love my job is because of opportunities to make a difference in these and other areas. And this is one reason why I'm deeply troubled by the Trump presidency. When it comes to policy benefitting U.S. business and the economy generally, Trump seems to be exercising significant incompetence.

Tariffs and the Trump family profits

Trump has already gotten the U.S. economy to hit its lowest lows in decades, largely due to his approach to tariffs. In March, U.S. corporate bankruptcies hit their highest level since the Great Recession. I recently attended a conference for procurement professionals, where one risk management firm projected significant increases in bankruptcies if Trump's tariffs hold. These bankruptcy spikes were projected to impact primarily privately-held companies. So while current administrative decisions have been bad for companies generally, they have been especially bad for small business.

During his campaign, Trump promised, "When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” He now seems to have forgotten that promise, and is hedging his bets on tariffs as a policy to bring down American prices... eventually. What many American's don't realize is that it could take decades for the U.S. to build the manufacturing capacity to do this.

In May, President Trump said on Fox News that "eggs have come down 400%," but that's not even possible. For this to be true, you'd have to go to the grocery store for one carton of eggs and get 4 cartons for free. In reality under Trump, eggs have hit average prices higher than at any point during the Biden presidency.

And despite Trump's promise to reduce federal spending, his actions since taking office have done the opposite. In his first 100 days in office, Trump spent $200 billion more than President Biden in the same time period last year. According to Fox News reporting, the "Big Beautiful Bill" is projected to add $5 trillion to the national debt. As I wrote recently, Trump's immigration actions now have us spending more than $5 million per day on individuals with no criminal record.

Meanwhile, Trump is currently experiencing the most personal profiting from the presidency in history. In 1994, the conservative establishment lambasted Hillary Clinton as first lady because she had made almost $100,000 in cattle futures. Under the Trump presidency, that furor against Clinton is now laughable. While Trump saw a significant decrease in wealth during his first presidency, largely due to his portfolio of hotels and resorts suffering during the COVID pandemic, he was still able to profit from his time in office, and he is currently in the process of wealth accumulation in his second term. Unlike past presidents who grew significant wealth after the presidency, Trump is monetizing his time as President.

The Trumps have done more to financially profit off of the presidency than any other president in history. Partly through policy changes made as president, Trump and his partners in his second term have made more than $300 million in new cryptocurrency fees. In another unprecedented move Donald Trump, Jr. opened an exclusive D.C. club named after the presidency, Executive Branch, which allows access to the president after paying an initial membership fee of $500,000. During his first term as president, Trump made up to $160 million from foreign countries, and he appears poised to seek even greater personal profit in his second term.

FEMA

Of course, not all questionable activity from the Trump regime is due to possible greed. Much of it appears to be due to incompetence. Setting aside hiring a Secretary of Defense who accidentally added in a reporter to a group chat discussing classified military operations on a public platform never before used by the U.S. military in this way, one can look at the recent catastrophic floods in Texas and the response by FEMA.

The Kerr County floods killed more than 100 people, including many children. Kerr County officials have been blamed for not investing in infrastructure to identify and respond to catastrophic weather, even while President Trump is gutting federal agencies that would do this work across the country. This is one problem with Trump's cuts: they are overbroad, and we don't realize the significance of this funding until it's too late. Trump cuts will cause our federal government to be less prepared for these events in the future.

This approach to change is contrary to some of the most significant Catholic and conservative thinkers. As the Catholic writer G.K. Chesterton is known for saying, “Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.” And Russell Kirk, one of the greatest conservative political philosophers in history, has argued that a fundamental principle of conservatism is that change should be slow and respectful of what has come before us. Trump’s approach to government change is not conservative. It’s radical, in the tradition of much of Western liberalism.

But even beyond these cuts, Trump’s administration is leading in ways that are causing responses to catastrophe to be delayed. And this can cost lives. Kristi Noem, as homeland security secretary, instituted a new policy that any expenses over $100,000 need her personal review and approval. As someone who has worked in procurement organizations for Fortune 500 companies, this policy immediately struck me as laughable and extremely bureaucratic. At various points in my career, I have told people that requiring my approval for that level of spending is a waste of my time and would slow down our essential work with unnecessary bureaucracy. And I’ve been a middle manager, not the homeland security secretary for the United States. In an agency responsible for quick responses to catastrophic events, this is an astounding level of bureaucracy.

Noem is adding bureaucracy, even as Trump recently cut 20% of FEMA's staff, and while key leaders are resigning. This degree of bureaucracy, and the general "chaos" in FEMA under Noem's leadership even led FEMA's chief of Urban Search and Rescue to resign. Just weeks earlier, Jeremy Greenberg, who led the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA, also resigned. The gutted staff, increased bureaucracy, and resignation of experienced leaders does not bode well for our country. This is a rare achievement under the Trump administration: gutting federal programs and adding bureaucracy, while still adding trillions to the national debt. If this were my business, I'd say there was something wrong at the top.

Immigration and small business

Likewise, Trump’s immigration policy is having unintended consequences that were predicted by his critics. Despite Trump’s promise to target violent criminals with immigration enforcement, only 7% of those detained have been convicted of violent crimes. Instead, those targeted include a Christian pastor and construction worker in Maryland, a Georgia teen who had a traffic ticket, an honors student in New York with a 3.9 GPA, a single mother whose arrest leaves her children’s security in jeopardy, a U.S. citizen and army veteran who ICE detained for three days because of the color of his skin, an evangelical Christian who sought asylum in the United States after Iran targeted him for smuggling bibles into his home country, a Chicago grandmother who has been in this country peacefully for more than ten years, a Kansas City mother whose arrest left her five-year-old autistic child parentless, and many others like them.

These are tragic stories, but what’s of particular interest here is impact to U.S. businesses. The latest reporting by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, as well as analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy and the Federal Reserve, indicate that the immigration policy is threatening the U.S. economy because of its impact on jobs generally. The U.S. labor force needs regular growth in order to support itself. But recent immigration enforcement is reducing the labor force, and recent statistics “suggest that the loss of immigrant labor is not bringing more U.S.-born workers into the labor force.”

Instead, companies are losing their labor force and are unable to replace them. This is particular the case for small businesses in rural areas. Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha had been steadily growing, but due to a sudden arrest of half of its workforce by ICE, its sales have plummeted nearly 70% and it may have to shut down and lay off the rest of its workers. Nebraska has a work shortage, and so it has relied on Hispanic immigrants to fill positions. There simply aren’t U.S. workers to replace those detained. Restaurants in Massachusetts, San Diego, and elsewhere have had to cut hours and are facing potential closure. ICE raids on farms in Texas, Pennsylvania, California, and elsewhere have gutted workforces and left have left operations disrupted and crops rotting. Farms in Texas and California are operating at 30% capacity, and farms and hotels across the United States are facing labor shortages. Immigrants account for about 40% of construction workers in Texas, and companies across the industry are facing labor shortages, lost revenue, and potential closures.

Certainly, unethical and predatory labor practices should be targeted and changed. But it’s important to consider the most effective way to make these changes, which the current administration does not seem to be concerned about. Simply deporting all “illegal immigrants” would essentially involve shutting down major industries, closing down businesses across the United States and leading to the layoff of a large scale of U.S. citizens. Industries like manufacturing are currently being hit especially hard, by both immigration enforcement and tariffs.

Corruption and bribery

In the area of procurement, it’s standard for companies to ban corrupt and unethical practices in their supply chain, from bribery to child labor. Global supply chains can be extremely complex, and it takes significant effort in order to ensure ethical and humane practices to bring companies the materials and labor they need. American companies are especially cognizant of many foreign nations where bribery of government officials is common, and where corruption can be rampant.

Until recently, this was less of a concern in the United States. But under the Trump presidency, concerns about corruption and bribery come closer to home. Two months before Trump took office, the Department of Justice announced an FBI investigation which found that New York Mayor Eric Adams had "abused his position... to take bribes and solicit illegal campaign contributions," including taking "improper and illegal benefits from foreign nationals." In January, a businessman that federal prosecutors said had made illegal donations to Adams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But Adams never had to stand trial for taking bribes from foreigners. Ironically, the corruption charges against Adams were dropped in what many have called a quid pro quo. Trump sought to have Adams cooperate with the his immigration agenda while considering dropping the charges. The judge who agreed to dismiss the case at the request of Trump's DOJ said that, despite the decision, the DOJ's action here "smacks of a bargain."

After Watergate, Congress established a system to audit the executive branch and the protection of federal workers' rights. Forty-four years later, Trump is dismantling this system. Trump is the first President to fire these watchdogs en mass. In his early months as president, he has been firing leaders across the government would help to monitor and respond to questionable behavior by the government. In another first for a president, he has fired 18 inspector generals, leaders responsible for driving government accountability.

Trump is eliminating any leaders who may hold him accountable or expose unethical behavior to the public. And he appears ready to use his presidential power to favor his supporters, even those who are criminals. Shortly after taking office, Trump pardoned the criminals who broke into and vandalized the U.S. Capitol while the government was in the process of certifying the presidential election on January 6. Many of those pardoned had criminal records including rape and domestic violence. Rather than “locking up criminals,” he’s removing crimes from their records, as long as they support him. One rioter that was pardoned was later convicted and sentenced to life for an assassination plot against law enforcement officers who had investigated his case. More than a dozen of those pardoned by Trump are members of the white supremacist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

One New Hampshire man who participated in the riots and later took accountability for his actions criticized the pardons. He said:

“It’s a horrible lesson for younger generations... The things I did on January 6, I did them and a pardon is to not accept that. That’s why I’m not going to accept the pardon, I accept reality, I’m keeping my criminal record, thank you, but no thank you.”

It's unclear what all this means for businesses receiving federal funding or grants, or who may become targets of the administration because of disagreements over policy or politics. I've written previously how the government has been bringing baseless charges against graduate students who disagree with the President's positions. And the Trump administration has stripped gay people like me of rights that we had previously held, as well as changed federal policy so that gay people can be surveilled by the government simply for being gay. I'm among many Americans who are uniquely exposed to be subject to targeting by the government.

I worry at times what this could mean for my job and my career that I have worked so hard to build. Will the Trump administration surveil me, identify my political and social views, and then use its influence to try to get me fired? With everything I've outlined above, this no longer feels like a far-fetched question. It actually feels like a very valid concern.

But I don't feel that I can afford to be silent. Many others are much more vulnerable than me. If I, an attorney with a well-paying job and a loving family, do not speak out, who will? Times like these call for people who will be thoughtful and brave, who will do the uncomfortable for the sake of what is right. It costs me very little today to write a blog, to share my concerns with family and friends, to tell the many who are afraid today that I love and care for them and will do what I can to support them.

"But he will be happy"

In high school, my mom was talking with a close friend about my intention to major in philosophy. The friend told her, "Well... Chris may be poor, but at least he'll be happy."

This is why I majored in philosophy. I love my job. And I love my career. But, ultimately, I wanted to spend my four years of college studying the human condition and what people throughout history have had to say about what it means to live a full and happy life. In the end, all the writers I respected had very little to say about wealth (with Aristotle being an exception, for reasons I won't get into today). The Christians I studied were deeply critical of the accumulation of wealth

Especially for the Christians that I admired, the cost of eggs mattered little compared to how we treated strangers, how we treated the poor, how we treated foreigners in our midst. I think of the third century Saint Lawrence. In 258 AD, the Emperor Valerian targeted Lawrence, who was in charge of the Church's riches in Rome. Lawrence had sold the Church's possessions and given the money to widows and the sick, and he had given the Church's property to the poor. Valerian ordered Lawrence to turn over all the Church's riches to the empire within three days. Lawrence arrived at the emperor's palace with the poor, sick, and suffering, pouring in behind him. He said to the emperor, "These are the true treasures of the Church. The Church is truly rich, far richer than the Emperor."

Valerian ordered Lawrence to be executed.

These stories are where we can find the power of Christianity, and what have kept me tethered to it. They give me hope and inspiration. And I hope that I can make the hard choices that God calls me to. For now, I think that means working to inform myself and speaking out.

With Love,

Chris

Chris Damian writes

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