Elon musk

The Cabinet Room was packed. President Trump sat in the middle of the full oblong table. On his right was his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who was voted in unanimously by the Senate; on his left a newcomer to politics, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, whose appointment only passed the Senate thanks to the deciding vote of Vice President J.D. Vance. Vance was directly opposite the president — and crowded between the VP and the back wall were several journalists equipped with microphones and cameras, leering over Trump’s appointees.In his introductory remarks, Trump said he was reelected to cut taxes, handle the border and balance the budget. He reaffirmed that his mandate to accomplish these tasks came from the US electorate.

Why are Democrats mounting such a ferocious assault on Elon Musk? Why are mainstream media outlets so eager to go along? The simplest answers are the best. Musk is the most prominent member of the new administration aside from the president himself. He is Donald Trump’s point man for exposing malfeasance in federal bureaucracies, determining where the money is going and cutting the engorged payroll. The more Musk and Trump succeed, the worse for Democrats. They created those agencies; their supporters staff them; and those supporters funnel lots of public money to specially favored institutions and projects. When Musk attacks this partisan nexus, he is attacking a major source of Democratic power and influence. That is what’s really at stake here, beyond cutting the budget.

The federal government is not becoming Office Space — yet.The Elon Musk-led effort to require all federal government employees to report back with what exactly they do here was met with pushback from throughout the administration, including from several of President Trump’s new appointees.The Office of Personnel Management’s email, with the subject line, “What did you do last week?” mirrors how Musk has operated companies he owns, like Twitter/X, where he asked similar questions.OPM’s moves came after Trump issued an ultimatum on Truth Social for Musk to double-down on his aggressiveness with the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE), which many thought might not be possible. For some, the measures are a bridge too far.

Losing elections is a bit like getting dumped. Often times the dumped party’s desire to overcome the heartbreak or to bounce back from the blow can result in an even messier downfall. You need a minute to get your act together, lest you make an ass of yourself in public while trying to demonstrate how well you’re doing. The Democrats are in that break-up spiral, with their latest antics exposing a lack of both direction and discretion.  Earlier this month, Representative Maxine Waters, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Al Green (combined age: 237) gathered outside the Treasury Department and bemoaned the Department of Government Efficiency and its leader Elon Musk.

National Harbor, Maryland Elon Musk made a surprise appearance at CPAC Thursday afternoon, where Argentinian president Javier Milei presented him with a chainsaw. “This is a chainsaw for bureaucracy!” Musk said, brandishing it before a whooping crowd. The Department of Government Efficiency chief took to the stage with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt. Musk wore his MAGA hat — “dark gothic MAGA!” as he said — a black jacket and mirror shades, which he kept on for the duration of his appearance. The X CEO called for America to “legalize comedy” and agreed with Schmitt that legacy media companies receiving USAID money from the federal government were becoming “mouthpieces for the state.

Forget Trumpbucks and Bidenbucks: Americans could see Muskbucks (or DoGEbucks?) hitting their mailboxes if the world’s richest man has his way.This time, it wouldn’t be via payouts from X — it would be courtesy of the billions of dollars in savings that Musk claims have already come from the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DoGE) wide-ranging cuts. According to Musk, DoGE has already saved taxpayers $55 billion — and he would like to see payments sent back to taxpayers when his agency winds down ahead of America’s 250th birthday. The idea started — where else?

The current and former US secretaries of transportation are playing the blame game following a rise in aviation crashes since the beginning of the Trump administration. Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden's transportation secretary, peppered X with questions Monday, asking, “The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?” Buttigieg's enquiries followed a string of plane crashes throughout the nation, beginning on January 29 when an American Airlines plane and a Black Hawk military helicopter collided above the Potomac River in Washington, DC, resulting in the death of sixty-seven people.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency noted on X their discovery that “federal employee retirements are processed using paper, by hand, in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania” Tuesday. Apparently, the facility employs 700 people, over 200 feet underground, processing around 100,000 applications per year, which are then stored in boxes and brown envelopes. This processing can last many months, according to the intrepid boys at DoGE. The clear implication was that they had uncovered yet another absurd and archaic operation, needlessly long-winded and ripe for automation. I must confess this was not my reaction. I am generally sympathetic to the idea of lean, thrifty government.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) has set its sights on the Pentagon. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth told Axios that he will welcome “the keen eye of DoGE” to scrutinize Department of Defense (DoD) spending “very soon.”Hegseth also said he’s already talked to DoGE head honcho Elon Musk about ways to make the Defense Department run more efficiently. Though in Hegseth’s view “efficiency” does not equate to funding cuts (he wants DoD spending to increase), one quick and easy way to curb waste right out the gate would be to abandon the F-35 fighter jet, fire every senior person involved in its commission and put in place systems to ensure that such horrors never happen again.

With Donald Trump moving so rapidly on so many fronts, it is hard to grasp the big picture. What are his overriding goals, politically and electorally? What has he already accomplished?  Here is a summary in case you are keeping score. Trump has done more in a few weeks than any president in history. He took office with a coherent, detailed program and control of Congress (though a very narrow majority in the House). He is acting swiftly before his political capital dissipates.  Trump hopes to sustain his winning electoral coalition beyond his time in office. That’s why he chose a young populist, J.D. Vance, as his vice president and presumptive successor.