The constitutional order is now mostly window decoration as a foreign billionaire controls the state through a shadow administration with no official checks.
The fact that such foolish and inconsiderate individuals have wrecked the constitutional system is one of the humiliations of our historical moment. On the trail with Donald Trump, billionaire Elon Musk, who contributed roughly $250 million to Trump’s campaign, promised to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget. This project would destroy the country’s credit, destroy the economy, eliminate institutions and programs that shape people’s lives, and leave a leadership and economic vacuum in the world that America’s competitors, specifically China, could fill.
On its own, this would have been threatening enough. Musk, however, named his new project “the department of government efficiency,” or Doge, a juvenile reference to a Shiba Inu meme that has been around for years. This is because Musk is a narcissist and a nerd, insisting on eschewing solemnity and appearing carefree and irreverent while he destroys people’s lives.
Musk has overthrown the American political system under this ridiculous pretext, gaining an unprecedented amount of personal power that is unelected and appears to be completely unaccountable. Doge is far into the Trump restoration, less than three weeks in.
Musk is not a cabinet member, the group is not a government agency, and the Senate has not had a chance to approve him. According to reports, he now has offices in both the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street and the West Wing. He is directing a small number of engineers and programmers, who are reportedly between the ages of 19 and 25, to disperse throughout federal departments, take control of their private information, and propose drastic budget cuts.
Musk is said to have written an email with the subject line “Fork in the Road” to all 2 million government employees just days after Trump was sworn in, urging them to step down in anticipation of planned mass layoffs. According to reports, Musk offered employees a buyout of seven months’ wages; it’s unlikely that anyone who accepts the offer will ever get it.
Musk and his youthful supporters have taken steps to shut down entire departments as well as particular programs they believe are unnecessary, including those for which Congress has appropriated funding. In addition to closing USAid, the country’s international aid organisation, he is allegedly seeking to privatise the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and dismantle a large portion of the Department of Labour and the Department of Education.He has taken over the Treasury and, more especially, its payment system, giving himself the authority to veto every government expenditure on a line-item basis. Additionally, he has apparently downloaded a large amount of sensitive and confidential material onto private servers after gaining access to reams of it. He has access to financial records, debt records, medical histories, and bank accounts. He could check your social security number if he wanted to.
Musk was not elected, and only a small portion of his actions are lawful. The authority of the purse is given to Congress, not an arbitrary wealthy individual, because the people should be able to influence how the government spends their taxes through their elected representatives. Because the federal bureaucracy is meant to serve the American people, not just act as courtiers and enforcers of whim for some entitled foreign billionaire who no one has ever voted for, federal civil servants are legally protected from purges.
Musk might even comply with a court ruling telling him to stop his unconstitutional destruction of the federal government, but he also runs the risk of becoming alarmed, declaring an early triumph, and retreating. However, that opportunity appears increasingly distant. Several state organs are now under Musk’s authority. Furthermore, it appears that there is no way to stop him.
Although Trump detractors have long foreseen a rift between Musk and Trump, it is unclear exactly which Trump is giving Musk his power; his dismantling of federal agencies and cutting federal spending appears to be driven more by his own whims and inclinations than by any directive from the man who is ostensibly the president.
That is, it might be Trump who occupies the White House and who appears on television every few days to sign new executive orders aimed at punishing and dehumanising transgender people. However, Musk is in charge of federal spending and government operations, thus he is also in charge of the nation. Nowadays, the constitutional order mostly serves as window dressing. In actuality, the state is being ruled by a foreign billionaire through a shadow administration, and there is no official check on his power.
The fact that it seems exaggerated, even insane, to simply mention what is occurring is another embarrassment of our day. After all, Musk is such a morally reprehensible individual—so blatantly self-serving and naive in his petty self-esteem—that it is difficult to see him as such a significant historical figure.
He symbolises the shallowness and emptiness of evil, rather than its banality. However, Musk’s private, personal takeover of governmental authority has raised serious questions about whether the US Constitution still applies. If he disregards its dictates so carelessly and with such impunity, how can that be? How can it be that a man wealthy enough to purchase anyone may wish away the authority of the people’s elected representatives?
It has long been evident that America was moving away from a liberal democratic system of government and towards something less accountable and more obscene, more akin to a wealthy person’s private enterprise that exploits and punishes the populace but never complies with their wishes. We anticipated this. I simply didn’t think it would be so humiliating.
