It’s no secret that the Trump administration has embarked on an “everything all at once” blitz to transform how our federal government works and who it serves. While we may only know the full extent of its consequences years from now, its intent appears to be the transformation of the world’s oldest democracy into the world’s newest autocratic kleptocracy.

What is an autocratic kleptocracy? It’s a system in which politicians control elections and enrich themselves through kickbacks, bribes and special favors from wealthy co-conspirators, lobbyists and corporations, and by directing state funds to themselves and their associates.

Why else would President Trump, with the help of Elon Musk and his minions:

• Fire the director of the Office of Government Ethics (which advises political appointees on conflicts of interest).

• Eliminate the inspectors general of federal agencies (who root out fraud and corruption).

• Gut consumer and labor protections (the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency).

• Eviscerate law enforcement (by ending the independence of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

• Cease enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (which prohibits bribery of and by foreign officials).

With no one left to provide oversight, Trump, Musk and their billionaire supporters will be free to use government contracts to enrich themselves and their families, promote legislation advantageous to their businesses and use their influence to win lucrative contracts at home and abroad. This is very similar to how Vladimir Putin successfully created an authoritarian kleptocracy out of the remnants of the former USSR.

Consider, for instance, Trump’s sudden announcement that Gaza would be a great location for resort development, should those pesky Palestinians submit to being forcibly relocated. Whose family is in the business of developing resorts? Whose son-in-law, Jared Kushner, suggested the very same location as prime resort real estate two years ago?

Consider also Trump’s recent about-face on cryptocurrency, which he vehemently opposed in his first term. Crypto is used primarily for cross-border transfers of illegal assets and money laundering by the uber-rich, most notably Russian oligarchs. Now Trump, who has reportedly had his share of deals with shady Russians, is selling his own. And he’s pardoned the man who introduced the use of crypto to sell dangerous drugs worldwide. It makes you wonder.

Another likely result of the evisceration of federal oversight is the termination of many or all of the 32 investigations by 11 different federal agencies into Musk’s companies. Oversight of conflicts of interest with those companies’ more than 100 federal contracts (worth $13 billion over the last five years) will also likely end, as will the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement actions against Musk’s violations of securities law.

The Trump-Musk team has also forcibly accessed vast quantities of Americans’ personal data from the Treasury Department, the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and the Notify.gov system. This data includes the names, addresses, phone numbers, income and bank account numbers, retirement benefits records, medical records and information about enrollment in public benefit programs for nearly every American and American business. You and me. Businesses that may compete with their favored contractors for government contracts. Social service agencies whose programs they may not like.

Would you trust them to not use that information against business competitors and political enemies? Might they also use it to create targeted social media messages devised to reinforce their politics and skew elections as they did with the Facebook data that Cambridge Analytics used illegally in 2016?

The threat of using government information and resources to stifle dissent and control elections, another Putin technique, is very real. Why else would Trump neuter the Federal Election Commission and fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel (which enforces federal whistleblower protection laws as well as the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in most political activity)?

If that all sounds like a good idea, then you needn’t do a thing. If it bothers you even a little, do something. Pick one thing that you care deeply about and take action. Talk to your neighbors. Support nonprofits that will stand up to it with your time and money. Support politicians who agree and let them know. Write to the ones who are going along with it and give them hell.

Will the U.S. become an autocratic kleptocracy? That’s up to us.