The meaning of the 19th-century nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” has been clouded in mystery since it first became popularized in Lewis Caroll’s 1871 book, “Through the Looking Glass.” Caroll depicted Humpty Dumpty as an anthropomorphic egg, fragile and impossible to repair, despite the king’s best efforts. No one has established the meaning of the nursery rhyme, though many have tried.

Humpty Dumpty is an apt metaphor for environmental regulation. The government puts it on the wall, only to see a succeeding government cause the fall, knocking Humpty Dumpty to the ground. 

Once shattered, all subsequent efforts for rehabilitation are futile. It’s just too late.

In a few short weeks, the Trump administration has gutted laws, agencies and regulations that have guarded environmental protections for Americans. The president has severely damaged the country’s ability to fight pollution, climate change and environmental injustice.

On his first day of office, Trump ended America’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accords, which took seven years to corral international ratification from 200 countries. We were the only nation to remove ourselves from the treaty.

By following $75 million in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, we can see the economic “return on investment” from Trump’s promise to “Drill, baby, drill.” With regulations out of the way, the industry is free to initiate more fossil fuel extraction efforts with little to no oversight for environmental pollution, not to mention the devastating impact of more fossil fuel emissions released into the atmosphere for future generations.

The Trump modus operandi is to cut programs, fire employees and withhold funding legally legislated by Congress, then delay the court’s ability to make a judgment about the action.

For example, the Trump administration has withheld funds approved by Congress in 2022 in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and those approved in the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill of 2021. Funding for electric car charging stations, wind-powered mills, and subsidies for solar panels has been “paused.”

The executive branch has usurped the legislative branch’s constitutional responsibility of funding the government. The executive branch is bound by the Constitution to “execute” congressional legislation, not dismantle it arbitrarily. Two federal judges have intervened to make just that point, ordering the federal government to resume funding until otherwise directed by Congress.

John Podesta, senior climate adviser to the Biden administration, said, “We followed the law and they’re breaking the law. It remains to be seen whether they’ll be allowed to get away with it.”

In a remarkable move, Lee Zeldin, the acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recommended that the agency reverse its 2009 finding based on scientists’ consensus that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare. That would contradict decades of scientific consensus and undermine the legal basis of the government to fight climate change. Government websites are already scrubbing the phrase “climate change” from their pages.

If all of that is not bad enough, the Trump administration, under the authority of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has laid off thousands of federal employees from the EPA, the Departments of Interior and Energy, and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the government’s premier science agency. About 10% of NOAA’s 13,000 employees have either been dismissed or are on the chopping block. 

These people monitor hurricanes, coral reefs and the impact of severe weather patterns resulting from climate change. They provide trusted information to businesses, families, the military, and commercial and residential building contractors.

Last week, a federal judge ruled that the firings were illegal, but it remains to be seen whether that rebuke will stop Trump from abiding by the court’s rulings. Remember Trump’s haunting tweet from a couple of weeks ago: “He who saves his country does not violate any law.” How deep are these cuts, which are supposedly directed at “waste, fraud, and abuse?” 

Last Wednesday, Trump said he believed the EPA would cut 65% of its more than 17,000 jobs, a number Zeldin later confirmed. This would effectively gut the EPA, deeming it incapable of monitoring the nation’s environmental threats from nature and corporate tycoons.

The Trump Administration is not satisfied with dismantling federal efforts to fight pollution and address long-term climate change. They are also going after states and municipalities that have already created frameworks to address environmental crises.

For example, the administration is attempting to declare unconstitutional California’s law to end the sale of gasoline-powered cars in the state by 2035. The federal government has not challenged laws like this in the past, but it would be faster than overturning California’s laws through the typical process of public notice and comment. So much for the outdated Republican principles of “state’s rights.”

Trump has knocked Humpty Dumpty off the wall in just a few weeks. It’s troubling to consider that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men who come to power when the country has been decimated will not be able to put Humpty together again.

The president is destroying the country’s ability to protect the environment and the weakest members of the population. At that point, the price of eggs may be too high for any of us to use them again.

Author’s Note: I’m indebted to the research of David Gelles, Lisa Friedman, Brad Plumer, Christopher Flavelle, Austyn Gafney, and Camille Baker for facts used in this article.