As U.S. President Donald Trump takes a wrecking ball to the norms, rules, and laws that have governed the United States for decades, whistleblowing as we know it – a way to right wrongs, call out misconduct and hold people accountable – may be under threat.
Think about it: For decades, whistleblowers in the United States have shone a spotlight on fraud and waste in government, environmental catastrophes, and corporate malfeasance. The country’s tradition of whistleblowing goes back to its founding as a nation, when Benjamin Franklin used confidential letters to reveal that the governor of Massachusetts misled Parliament about a military buildup in the new world, according to a whistleblower timeline published by the Government Accountability Project.
