Concerned Over Donald Trump’s Decision American Skiing Stars Raise Voice Over Staff Firing

January 20, 2025! That was the day Donald Trump came back, stepping into the White House. Since then, the executive orders have been dropping faster than approval ratings. First, he banned transgender women from competing in female sports. Now, he’s slashing the federal workforce, with Elon Musk—yes, that Elon Musk, standing beside him as the newly appointed head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The order tightens hiring and sets the stage for mass layoffs, all in the name of “streamlining.” But not everyone’s thrilled—especially the alpine skiing community, which just found itself on a very slippery slope.

But with this new law, a serious concern has emerged: the Sierra Avalanche Center (SAC), which provides life-saving avalanche forecasts for the Lake Tahoe area, warns that it may lose one of its staff forecasters due to federal government staff cuts. The U.S. Forest Service, which helps fund SAC, could implement the layoff as early as next week, reducing the number of weekly avalanche forecasts from seven to four.

With over 200,000 people relying on these reports each year, SAC argues this decision puts backcountry skiers, snowboarders, search and rescue teams, and ski patrollers at greater risk. Simply put, fewer forecasts mean more danger in the mountains.

Beyond the immediate safety concerns, SAC says the cut doesn’t even make financial sense. The organization is funded through a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and a nonprofit, with the nonprofit covering 75% of the forecasters’ salaries. If a forecaster is laid off, the government would actually owe the nonprofit money—meaning this so-called cost-saving measure could end up costing taxpayers more in the long run. To fight the decision, SAC is working with elected officials and the Forest Service while urging local skiers and snowboarders to contact their representatives and make their voices heard.

While SAC hasn’t directly linked the potential layoff to current political events, it comes amid widespread upheaval in federal agencies following new government efficiency mandates. As departments scramble to meet budget-cutting orders, essential services like avalanche forecasting are getting caught in the crossfire. For those who depend on these reports for skiing to stay alive, this isn’t just a bureaucratic shuffle—it’s a matter of life and death. But why Trump is downsizing the federal government?

The skiing community is already facing an uphill climb, so what’s behind this new law?

Trump is downsizing the federal government primarily to reduce spending, consolidate power, and weaken opposition within the bureaucracy. He leads his administration in viewing governmental growth as too extensive while also declaring both inefficiency and resistance to change as obstacles to policy implementation. Through job reductions and program eliminations, Trump intends to reduce wasteful spending and lower the national debt in his view. Due to the executive order Trump has instituted the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) controls federal agencies through collaboration with Elon Musk as its director.

Some people support this approach because they believe it enhances government transparency yet others predict that reduced agency budgets will end critical services alongside ongoing instability for institutions designed to offer monitoring functions. The downsizing initiatives of Donald Trump have dual purposes extending to both fiscal reductions and political maneuvering. Regulatory agencies together with environmental organizations that challenged his policies are the ones primarily affected by budget cuts. Trimming resources from these departments while lowering their workforce hinders their capacity to investigate his administration.

Additionally, this move plays directly into his “drain the swamp” narrative, energizing his base by portraying the government as bloated and corrupt. The layoffs also allow him to replace career officials with loyalists, giving him greater control over federal operations. However, the rapid and aggressive nature of these cuts especially in the skiing community has triggered legal challenges, with courts blocking some of DOGE’s actions. If the President defies these rulings, it could spark a constitutional crisis over executive power and the limits of presidential authority.