Elon Musk had not spent much time in politics until he helped President Donald Trump with his presidential campaign in 2024. He was given a job position by Trump’s Administration in his new Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
DOGE is currently targeting the International Revenue Service. The IRS is now preparing to fire thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season. Layoffs began on Thursday, Feb. 20 as the IRS fired roughly 6,000 employees.
DOGE has recently gained access to the United States Treasury Department’s payment system. With Trump facilitating this action, DOGE could have access to every American’s Social Security number and banking information.
Concerns are now raised as to whether or not DOGE could stop Social Security and Medicare payments altogether. A federal judge on Saturday has blocked DOGE from accessing the Treasury’s payment system.
The judge cited that any risk sensitive content could be disclosed and any prohibited persons must destroy any data already collected.
Vice President J.D. Vance suggested that judges “aren’t allowed” to control President Trump, specifically concerning his orders for Musk to find discrepancies in the government’s spending.
President Trump disagreed with the judge’s ruling and Musk is calling to impeach the judge that blocked him from accessing the Treasury’s systems.
DOGE claims to be saving taxpayers billions of dollars by cutting federal workers and gutting federal agencies like the Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, United States Agency of International Development and the IRS.
“For Musk, and others like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and of course Donald Trump, this means that his success as an entrepreneur and investor has led him to believe that he knows how to succeed in any organizational situation. This is a dangerous belief when those who succeed in running businesses believe that automatically translates to success in running government.” – Carl Cavalli, Political Science Professor in Political Parties and National Institutions
Massive layoffs are expected to occur for many of the departments targeted by DOGE. The Department of Education is already experiencing massive layoffs with $900 million in grants and funding being cut from the Institute of Education Sciences, which monitors the progress of students.
USAID, a program that administers humanitarian aid and assists other countries after natural disasters, was also targeted by DOGE. The department enforced layoffs, budget cuts and halted USAID workers from doing their service overseas. A federal judge on Feb. 13 extended a pause on Trump’s dismantlement of USAID until February 21.
Musk has been criticized for his drastic and quick firings of prominent employee’s a the National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday without realizing many of the workers played a critical role in maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
The Trump administration is now trying to rehire the Nuclear Scientists after DOGE went after the NNSA and its nearly 2,000 employees at the Department of Energy. The Trump administration is finding it hard to rehire the scientist’s lost access to their emails due to the firings. Many scientists are reconsidering working under the Trump administration due to the uncertainty created by DOGE.
Trump and Musk have gutted the CDC’s disease detection unit and fired hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA are now urging DOGE to halt anymore layoffs due to the already 400 employees that were laid off having direct roles in supporting safety inspectors and airport operations.
“Some billionaire business people tend to flirt with fascism. It fits their view of success. The problem is that governing – especially in a democracy – is a very different beast. Running governments means listening to the public. It also means protecting the population and providing services whether or not those actions are ‘profitable.’ In fact, government should NOT be ‘profitable’. Do we want government to take our tax money and not return anything for some of it? That is what ‘profit’ is, right?” – Carl Cavalli, Political Science Professor in Political Parties and National Institutions
Musk has been criticized for showing support for far-right groups like the Alternative for Germany. He went to a rally via video call back in January to encourage the party to press forward with their ultra-nationalist policies and their impact on Germany.
On Sunday Feb. 23 the AfD ended up getting the second most seats in Germany’s election with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany winning the election.
“Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents, let alone their great-grandparents,” Musk said. He continued, “There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that.”
Right-wing groups in other countries, including the far right Le Pen-allied Republican party in France and Reform UK in the United Kingdom, were given support from Musk.
