DOGE

How the world’s richest man laid waste the US government

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/trump-elon-musk-federal-government

Elon Musk at Trump’s inauguration. The president established a ‘department of government efficiency’ on the same day. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/AP

Elon Musk has achieved astonishing power in Trump’s administration – and spent the weekend wielding it

Since declaring his support for Donald Trump in July of last year and subsequently spending more than $250m on his re-election effort, Elon Musk has rapidly accumulated political influence and positioned himself at the heart of the new administration. Now as prominent as the president himself, Musk has begun to make use of that power, making decisions that could affect the health of millions of people, gaining access to highly sensitive personal data, and attacking anyone who opposes him. Musk, the world’s richest man and an unelected official, has achieved an astonishing level of power over the federal government.

Over the weekend, workers with Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) clashed with civil servants over demands for unfettered access to the computer systems of major US government agencies in a breakneck series of confrontations. When the dust settled, several top officials who opposed the takeover had been pushed out, and Musk’s allies had gained control.

Musk, with the backing of Trump, is now working to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid) – the world’s largest single supplier of humanitarian aid. He bragged on Sunday about “feeding USAid into the wood chipper”. He has also targeted several other agencies in an aggressive attempt to purge and remake the federal government along ideological lines, while avoiding congressional or judicial oversight.

Many of Musk’s actions have taken place without forewarning or transparency, sowing chaos and confusion among the thousands of people employed at the agencies like USAid that he has gone after. Humanitarian organizations that rely on US funding have halted operations and laid off staff, while government workers have been locked out of their offices. He is operating Doge as an unofficial government department with no congressionally approved mandate while he technically holds the position of “special government employee”, which allows him to sidestep financial disclosures and a public vetting process.

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Original article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/trump-elon-musk-federal-government

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

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Ocasio-Cortez Denounces Musk-Led Attacks on Agencies as ‘A Plutocratic Coup’

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Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivers a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. on March 22, 2024.
 (Photo: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/YouTube Screengrab)

“It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet… then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a recent livestream.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took to social media on Sunday to denounce billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tasked with leading the new administration’s effort to slash federal spending and bureaucracy, and is currently working to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.

In response to reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration placed two security chiefs at USAID on leave after their refusal to hand over classified materials to Musk’s “government-inspection teams,” per The Associated Press, Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday wrote: “This is a five alarm fire. The people elected Donald Trump to be president—not Elon Musk.”

“Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding U.S. classified information is a grave threat to national security,” she continued.

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Her remarks were reposted by the venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who wrote that Ocasio-Cortez is “wrong” and that the real five alarm fire will happen after Musk’s team reveals government waste and fraud.

Ocasio-Cortez hit back, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Musk’s efforts and writing: “This is a plutocratic coup. If you want the power, run for office and be chosen by the people.” The entire exchange took place on the Musk-owned social media platform X.

Musk, a billionaire and GOP megadonor, established himself as a major power player in Trump’s orbit even before Trump was inaugurated. In December, Musk sank a bipartisan spending bill, leaving Congress to scramble to come up with a new spending agreement to avert a government shutdown.

But since Trump’s return to the White House, Musk’s power has only grown as he’s moved swiftly to exert influence over levers of power within government. In a day one executive order, Trump established his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, by repurposing an existing entity, the U.S. Digital Service, an agency conceived to help improve the federal government’s services through better technology and design. Now called the U.S. DOGE Service, the move “will give centibillionaire Elon Musk and his allies seemingly unprecedented insight across the government, and access to troves of federal data,” according to WIRED.

Musk’s influence now extends to the General Services Administration as well as the Office of Personnel Management. Representatives from DOGE were also granted access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system that contains the personal information of every American who receives tax refunds, Medicare, Social Security, and other payments from the government.

Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the most vocal members of Congress speaking out about Musk and the Trump administration’s actions.

In a livestream on social media shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Ocasio-Cortez implored her audience not to take the Trump administration’s actions quietly.

“It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet… then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up,” said the New York Democrat.

“I want you all to know that you’re going to be hearing more from me,” she explained. “My responsibility is in trying to explain to you all what is going on as best as I can and leaning into our ability to collectively organize.”

Original article by Eloise Goldsmith republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingOcasio-Cortez Denounces Musk-Led Attacks on Agencies as ‘A Plutocratic Coup’