Since the inauguration, it feels as though the new Trump administration is a flurry of activity, inundating us with news of executive orders and cabinet confirmations. Among this activity is the creation of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). At the helm of this brand new agency is Elon Musk. DOGE promises to provide the American people with the reforms they want to see, which, according to them, require slashing funding for federal agencies that service Americans, firing their employees and accessing their computer systems at will.
Musk and his team of aides, most of whom are college-aged and have little to no governmental experience, are in the process of upending our federal bureaucracy at their own discretion. Beyond that, DOGE wants to get to know you on a personal level. Recently, it’s also been seeking access to data possessed by the Social Security Administration, which includes not only your Social Security number but also your addresses, bank account information and more. While the identities of those who work for DOGE are being protected for security reasons, everyone else’s personal information is its to scrutinize.
DOGE’s invasion into our government and our most personal information should be disturbing, especially given that its existence essentially hinges upon the lobbying of one man: Musk. Born in South Africa under Apartheid rule, Musk came to the United States for college. He made his billions as an investor, initially in the online banking company that would later become PayPal. However, he is most famous for his contributions to the rocket company, SpaceX and Tesla. With a net worth sitting around $400 billion, he is the richest person in the world.
To put this into perspective, Musk amassed his money, mostly through Tesla, a car brand that requires cobalt for its batteries. Most cobalt mining is done in the Congo, under near slave-like conditions, and with significant concern over reports of child labor. And he is now going after your grandmother’s Social Security check, falsely claiming that dead people are being paid by the federal government, because clearly, Musk should be the person ringing alarm bells about people receiving unethically sourced money. It would be ironic if it wasn’t extremely frustrating.
To me, his eagerness to insert himself into the Trump administration feels unsurprising. It’s the effectiveness of his efforts, rather, that I find unnerving. Musk has successfully managed to become a special government employee, one with access to some of our nation’s sensitive information. And to those who would argue he can’t possibly be looking to further enrich himself, I would ask, then, who is he doing all this for? Because it can’t possibly be on behalf of the average American.
Many Americans were at first drawn to Trump because of his blunt nature and decisiveness. He seemed very unlike an establishment politician. For Americans sick of being patronized and wanting to “drain the swamp,” Trump became their candidate of choice, and they got what they wanted. He’s not like any other politician: he’s worse. The oligarchs who fund our politicians used to at least sit in the shadows and send their money toward the candidates and policies they wanted. Now, they sit in the front row at the inauguration. The Trump administration isn’t even pretending to hide it: it’s composed of and made to service the rich.
But the most maddening part for me is that Musk was never elected. Nor was he nominated to any cabinet position and confirmed by Congress. He and Trump conspired together to circumvent the traditional procedures we hold politicians to so they could complete their agenda at their own leisure. And when federal judges get in the way of that, Musk takes to X – which he owns and censors, once again, at his own leisure – to suggest that the “worst 1 [percent] of appointed judges … be fired every year.”
He took it a step further to say that, “If any judge anywhere can stop a presidential action everywhere, [then] we do not live in a democracy.” Judicial review extends not just to laws, but to executive orders as well. It’s a pretty basic concept: judges determine what is constitutional. I think Musk knows that, but evidently, he doesn’t like the separation of power very much. He would much prefer if we had a leader who possessed unchecked power, who could make unquestioned decisions on a whim. It’s much easier to control one person than it is to control a bureaucracy, that’s why he’s trying to dismantle ours.
Over 200 years ago, James Madison warned the public of the dangers factions pose to democracy. Over the past 10 years, U.S. politics has seen the rise of one. Musk seized on the opportunity at hand and inserted himself into the heart of it. I have no doubt our nation’s founders would gape in horror if they could witness an unelected government official’s attempt to consolidate the power they worked so hard to strategically divide.
Fiona McFarland can be reached at [email protected]
