Elon Musk and his DOGE: Fixing government or dismantling the Constitution?

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As an investor, Elon Musk embraced the idea that business turnarounds require fast, drastic, and disruptive measures. Now he’s applying the same playbook to the country’s largest employer, the federal government, by seizing control of its payments system and its overseas aid department – and pushing aside civil servants who raise legal and ethical objections. 

In doing so, Mr. Musk, the billionaire head of a newly minted Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, appears to be carrying out the mission of President Donald Trump, who has vowed to cut waste and fraud in Washington.  

To President Trump’s supporters, the Silicon Valley ethos that Mr. Musk brings to overhauling taxpayer-funded institutions is why he’s needed in Washington, where a permanent political class has proved unwilling or unable to prune a bloated bureaucracy. Previous presidents, like Ronald Reagan, who vowed to pursue smaller government all failed. Mr. Reagan himself quipped in 1964, “a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”

Why We Wrote This

The Trump administration and Elon Musk seem to think drastic upheaval is the only way to tame bloated government bureaucracy. The question is whether they are smashing the Constitution to bits along the way.

That Mr. Musk is the world’s richest person and a huge political donor wielding a chainsaw over federal agencies that regulate his companies and safeguard citizens’ data is seen as less important than the results. And to MAGA loyalists who believe that an anti-Trump “deep state” operates in Washington, the ends are fully justified.

Frustration with Congress’ failure to tackle budget deficits, whichever party is in power, also plays into the narrative of Mr. Musk as the outsider who can cut the Gordian knot. 

“We need some fresh eyes on this thing who are outside of Washington, who can say, ‘What’s wrong here? How can we get this on track?’ And I think DOGE serves that purpose,” says Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia. 

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