In a 4am social media post last week, Elon Musk called his project to hack back the US federal bureaucracy the “revolution of the people”. What the world’s richest man is attempting looks, in reality, less like a popular uprising than a power grab by the executive branch, backed by President Donald Trump. Dismantling federal agencies, freezing funding and pushing staff to resign goes far beyond a mere restructuring. It aims to shift the constitutional separation and balance of powers.
Parts of the US bureaucracy are no doubt bloated and inefficient, and need modernisation. Most American voters support this idea. Reforming creaking bureaucracies often requires radical efforts. Yet it also needs detailed planning, transparency and oversight. All these are missing from what the Trump administration is now doing.
The Department of Government Efficiency that Musk heads is not a government agency established by Congress but an opaque body created by executive order. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has argued it has no authority to make spending decisions or shut down programmes — let alone entire agencies.