Unelected billionaire Elon Musk is dismantling the federal government

Only 15 days into the new administration of Donald Trump, and his close confidante Elon Musk has been uninhibited in dramatically reorganizing key aspects of the federal government. Over the weekend, the tech billionaire — who to Trump’s disdain has been claimed to be functioning as a kind of “shadow president” — prepared to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

Created by the John F. Kennedy administration, USAID is responsible for distributing billions in funding to combat HIV, malaria and pandemics, as well as providing medicine for infants. But in the eyes of the world’s wealthiest man and the president, it’s“run by a bunch of radical lunatics.”

“We’re getting them out ... and then we’ll make a decision [on its future],” he added. 

USAID is on the chopping block as the pair begin their austerity agenda. The move is one of the more prominent decisions made by Musk and his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which despite not being an official component of the federal government, appears to be exhibiting massive influence without congressional oversight or authorization. 

In a live stream on the social media site X, which Musk owns, the eccentric and controversial mogul explained the decision.

“As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms,” Musk said. “There is no apple … That is why it’s gotta go. It’s beyond repair.”

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Today, it was reported that Musk and his lackeys — which include a group of 19 to 24-year-olds with no government experience tasked with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” — have now accessed the Treasury Department’s payment system. The apparatus is crucial in the disbursement of trillions of dollars of government funds.

In an interview today on the radio program “Democracy Now!,” the Democratic strategist

Waleed Shahid summed the situation up bluntly: 

“Why does a billionaire industrialist, with millions in government contracts, military contracts for his private companies, need the Social Security numbers of every American, need to know what every single check that the U.S. government gives out to businesses, to charities? Why does this billionaire need to know this information?” Shahid said.

“He was not vetted or approved by the U.S. Senate. He has a history of corruption, for using public resources for private gain,” Shahid continued. 

He noted that in any other country, this would be considered a coup.

“In any other situation, this would be called state capture, and people around the world would be condemning it. But in the United States, we are not used to this kind of level of creeping authoritarianism, of plutocracy, of oligarchy so explicit.”