What did Donald Trump do today?

He had to scramble yet again to rehire federal workers he fired for political purposes.

Yesterday, Trump and other members of his administration triumphantly declared that they'd fired about 4,200 federal workers from "Democrat-oriented" parts of the government, by which he appears to have meant agencies providing healthcare and disease prevention programs. Among other things, the purge is programs aimed at treating substance abuse, a problem facing millions of Americans, which Trump appears to believe he's solved by ordering airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean.

Less than a day later, his administration is now admitting that they are hastily attempting to re-hire many of the workers fired last night because they were fired by mistake.

Strictly speaking, Trump himself didn't do anything on the subject: he spent the second weekend of the shutdown as he usually does, relaxing at a golf resort he owns. (As is now customary, the pool reporter was not permitted to talk to him or determine whether he was well enough to actually go out on the golf course.) The revelation came in the form of a leak from an unnamed administration official.

Having to scramble to rehire fired essential workers is a familiar problem by now for the Trump administration. So is having to rehire those whose firings were illegal, or retroactively pay them for work never done.

Trump now faces a dilemma that was unthinkable under any other president: he is caught between his desire to punish Americans who oppose him politically by sabotaging "Democrat programs," and the need to have at least some basic functions of government continue to work. 

Almost every federal employee still employed will miss their next paycheck in four days. Trump has refused to commit to back pay for them, in spite of a law he signed clearly requiring it. 

Why does this matter?

• The purpose of the government is to serve the American people, not be a hostage for Donald Trump to threaten until he gets his way. 

• This is not something that would happen in a remotely competent administration, much less repeatedly.
   
• Americans who didn't inherit their jobs know you don't fuck around with people's livelihoods like this.