The White House announced Thursday that they would be canceling scheduled pay increases for government employees, citing budget concerns.

In a letter to Congressional leaders, Trump wrote, "In light of our Nation's fiscal situation, Federal employee pay must be performance-based, and aligned strategically toward recruiting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets."

Because there is always money for billionaires' tax cuts, but never enough to give employees the 2 percent or so cost-of-living increase they so deserve to have.

"Performance-based" pay structures in the government are a terrible idea. Government is not the private sector and pay structures should not and cannot reflect the private sector. This particular language is a Koch-driven notion that is popular in Republican circles, but is entirely unworkable.

Moreover, funds have been set aside for those cost-of-living raises in a time where rank and file employees have seen their wages stagnate against rising costs due to tariffs and housing costs.

But beyond all that, as a matter of principle, Trump is telling government employees that billionaires deserve to take their raises because they're billionaires. His contempt for ordinary people is obvious to anyone not in the cult. What will it take for the Cult of Trump to figure it out, too?

In the meantime, let's see how this plays in the midterms, when employees in these states realize how they just got screwed: