Does Elon Musk ‘Coup’ commit with advisory body for slimming government?

This article was last updated on February 6, 2025

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Does Elon Musk ‘Coup’ commit with advisory body for slimming government?

“A non-selected billionaire who does not have to account, with far-reaching conflicts of interest, which has close ties with China, a genuine executioner of alleged enemies, hits the most sensitive financial data systems and the checkbook of our country, so that he is illegal Funds of our voters can block based on even the least grill or the wildest conspiracy theory. “

Senator Patty Murray at a press conference at the Capitol in Washington last Monday. She was talking about Elon Musk, who has been responsible for the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) for three weeks.

The task is to reduce government spending. The way in which that happens is ruthless and is reminiscent of the style with which Musk leads his companies, former employees have said. There are questions whether this method is in accordance with the Constitution, but that hardly seems to play a role.

The first victim of Musk and his service seems to be USAID, the American Agency for International Development. That was forced to close the head office last week and is on the nomination to be completely dismantled.

USAID is a criminal organization. It is time that it dies.

Elon Musk on X

The managers of the protection of USAID were on non-active set, after they had tried to prevent DOG employees from gaining access to secure systems. On X Written Musk about the dismantling: “USAID is a criminal organization. It is time that it dies.”

It doesn’t stop there. Musk also wants to implement far -reaching reforms at the GSA, who manages, among other things, government offices, with the financial watchdog for citizens CFPB and the Ministry of Education.

The OPM, a federal service that deals with the human resources of more than 2 million officials, is now a vehicle from Musk to implement cuts. Last weekend Reuters news agency reported that OPM officials no longer can log in With their computer systems.

The New York Times also reported that Doge has access to the payment system of the Ministry of Finance. From there, on behalf of federal government agencies, more than $ 5000 billion (5 trillion) dollars in payments is sent annually.

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This has led to great worries within the federal government and the congress. For example, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Shumer, said that Musk leads a “shadow government” that endangers all government services. That fear was still fueled by messages from Musk himself, who made it appear as if his department himself can withdraw payments.

About a Lutheran aid organization he said: “The corruption and waste are turned around in real time”, “, said Musk on x , adding that doge “quickly stop the payments” to the aid organization.

Today, court documents show that two employees of Doge, Tom Krause and Marko Elez, have been included in the Ministry of Finance and ‘read only’ access to the payment system. Elez worked for two from Musks companies and Tom Krause is the CEO of a cloud software company.

The two may not share the information from the system with other DOG employees, it says. A federal judge still has to approve the proposal, but has already said that he wants to do that.

Correspondent vs Ryan Hermelijn:

“The Democrats, who have great difficulty in finding a suitable answer to the barrage of decrees and statements by Trump, are now increasingly focusing their arrows at Musk. They see them as a possible Achilles heel for the president.

Polls show that many Americans are concerned about the role of Musk in the government. According to the Democrats, who have the minority in the congress, the performance of Musk is equal to a coup, but they are calling in the desert.

The Republicans in the congress hardly be critical of the state of affairs, while supervising the federal government is one of the core tasks of the congress. And it seems that they have no insight into the activities of Musk and his department.

Their caution is mainly due to the back cover that Trump gives to Musk, because criticism of Musk is also criticism of the president. And there is little need to strike it against the hair in the initial phase of his second term. “

In the meantime, it is not clear how many people work for the service of Musk, which is more a kind of advisory body than a department. Both Musk and the Trump government have not published a list of employees. Techmagazine Wired came last weekend with the names of Six young men From between 19 and 24 years old, who work for doge.

One of them is the 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who is now called “Expert Human Resources” at OPM. He has just finished high school and reportedly spent three months at Neuralink, the neurotechnology company of Musk last summer.

According to Wired, he suddenly appeared at online meetings of the GSA, in which he asked employees to tell why they should keep their jobs. Who he was or why he participated in the conversations was not explained.

‘Constitutional crisis’

The lack of clarity around Doge is not limited to employees. There are also questions whether it complies with the law. In the congress, legislative proposals are made for expenditure and the government budget is checked. Before someone can become head of a department, it must first be approved by the Senate.

Brian Riedl, former Republicans employee in the Senate, provides a “constitutional crisis”. He told NBC that there should be a degree of federal control over Musk. “As much power as Elon has Musk should be confirmed by the Senate,” he said. “Something of accountability must be made to the congress and voters.”

Approved by the congress

Also the intended dismantling of USAID cannot take place without the congress, say Democratic Congressmen. “Any attempt to merge USAID with or include in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be viewed, discussed and approved in accordance with the law,” Democratic Senators wrote in a letter to Minister Rubio of Foreign Affairs.

Rubio seemed to agree. He said that a “possible reorganization” would happen “in accordance with the applicable legislation”.

Meanwhile, Musk seems to be with 288 million dollars The greatest donor of Trump’s presidential campaign was surprised at the ease with which he has influenced Washington. “I think DOGE will have a considerable and significant impact on government waste, fraud and abuse. What is really amazing if you look at the size and scope,” he wrote on X this weekend.