According to travel experts, early spring is the ideal time to begin planning your summer vacation. Some of the more anxious among us (OK, me) might even push that to pre-spring, as in late February or early March, if only to provide a beacon of hope during the year’s gloomiest months.
Lord knows we could all use a beacon of hope right now. I just fear summer vacation may no longer be it. President Trump and world’s richest man Elon Musk seem determined to make any upcoming vacation plans as difficult, expensive and potentially dangerous as possible.
In a quest to purge the federal government of what the two men said they considered wasteful spending, Trump appointed Musk head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. Since then, the businessman behind X, Tesla and Space X has fired an estimated 300,000 people, stripping and effectively eliminating entire departments and agencies. Should these terminations stand (many are under judicial review), they would constitute the largest jobs cut in American history.
And, though this may not be the primary point of concern, the end of summer vacation as we know it.
Considering a trip to a national park? Be advised that the firing of more than 1,000 national parks employees will inevitably lead to difficulty accessing some of the most beloved and iconic portions of this country — the lines at the Grand Canyon and the headache of campsite booking at Yosemite are sure to get a whole lot worse.
The Trump administration recently walked back the firing of thousands of seasonal workers at the parks after a wave of protests over the prospect of dirty (or closed) bathrooms, overflowing trash containers (which would draw bears and other wildlife), unrepaired trails and a lack of emergency services.
Even so, the loss of so many full-time employees does not fill one with confidence. I love the national parks, but I am not about to venture into what can still be quite dangerous terrain without the reassuring presence of knowledgeable and highly skilled rangers. Not to mention my feelings about marauding bears.
National parks are, of course, not the only potential travel destination. But travel itself has taken several big hits since Trump came into office last month.
In the wake of several recent airplane crashes and with mass firings at the Federal Aviation Administration, overall confidence in air travel has decreased. New tariffs on aluminum and steel threaten to raise already high ticket prices, and cuts in the Transportation Security Administration all but promise to increase the length of security lines (while potentially decreasing actual security).
Oh, and after years of delay, the RealID requirement that Trump signed into law during his first administration is due to take effect May 7. Those who don’t have a state-issued driver’s license or identification card that meets federal standards will either have to carry their passport while traveling within the United States or risk not being able to fly. So prepare for those hold-ups as well.
Musk has made it very clear that his definition of “efficiency” is “cost reduction,” as opposed to making the average citizen’s life move more quickly and smoothly. His time may be money, but yours can be wasted waiting hours in line.
If you’re thinking you can avoid the whole mess with a road trip, well, tariffs on Canada and Mexico are predicted to raise gas prices (already precipitously high in California) and Musk and his minions have not spared the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from their mass reductions. Nor railway and other transit safety agencies.
Safety, it would seem, is not efficient. (Off-topic, but consider this an important reminder that if you’re pregnant and traveling, please be aware that in many states hospitals are denying care to women in crisis due to new antiabortion laws.)
Meanwhile, hotels and restaurants face staffing shortages caused by Trump’s new immigration policies, and we know what that means: more closures and higher prices. Airbnb, already plagued by criticisms of its draconian rules, hidden fees and effect on local real estate markets, is now facing a boycott, including by hosts leaving the site in protest of its co-founder’s role in Musk’s DOGE.
In other words, traveling just about anywhere in the United States will no doubt become more expensive, and far less efficient, than it already is. Your tax dollars at work!
International travel too has become instantly more daunting, and not just because of airline safety issues, fuel prices, growing anxiety among green card holders or the fact that many transgender Americans have seen their gender designations switched to that assigned at birth.
Americans abroad have often faced a certain amount of snobbery — we can be loud, monolingual and overly enamored of flip-flops — but with a president and vice president who have already antagonized most of mainland Europe, Greenland, Panama, Mexico, India and Canada (Canada!), the disdain may be a bit more overt. Especially in places (including Spain, Italy and Greece) that are already plagued by, and openly protesting, overtourism.
Musk has of course been spotted now and then partying on a yacht in Greece, but he is on record saying he doesn’t think highly of vacations (or a 40-hour workweek.) Undoubtedly the prospect of millions of Americans fretting about where they can afford to safely go for a summer holiday bothers him not at all. But Trump owns hotels, for heaven’s sake. During his first 28 days in office, he spent 12 nights at his home at Mar-a-Lago, and several of those days golfing.
Americans work harder — longer hours, with fewer daily breaks — than any other wealthy country including Japan. Our full-time employees are eligible for, on average, half as many paid vacation days as their European counterparts and, according to the Pew Research Center, 46% of them do not use all of the PTO in any given year.
So it isn’t “efficient” to endanger, or make more difficult and expensive, the relatively few and short summer holidays Americans do take. It’s heartless. And downright un-American.