Ever since Donald Trump assumed office on 20 January 2025, the mood in the air has felt rather sombre and bleak. It has become apparent that the US is no longer ruled in a traditional way. Now, it is instead governed by the unelected Elon Musk and his duplicitous DOGE team.
Elon Musk and DOGE: an unelected power grab?
Just last week, Musk stood in the Oval Office oddly accompanied by his son “X Ash a Twelve” – with critics labelling the event as a coup d’état. In other words, it was a full-scale takeover of the US government which blatantly ignores the constitution and where Trump, for once, wasn’t the centre of attention.
Taking questions from reporters, Musk denied a hostile power grab.
However, he has been involved in some of the most disputed decisions made by the Trump administration so far. This includes the removal of regulations and even gaining access to the Treasury Payments Department, which has sparked fear throughout the streets of Washington and beyond.
It must be said that the world’s richest man standing up in the world’s highest office taking questions from reporters doesn’t exactly make one feel comfortable about the current state of the US. It now resembles an oligarchy rather than a democracy, where the super-rich tech bros of Silicon Valley sit on the throne.
As a businessman, Musk appears to wield a great deal of power and prowess. His platform X is a mouthpiece that he uses to promote his own tweets and spread misinformation to his over 200 million followers. It almost resembles, and darkly echoes, “Newspeak from 1984”. This along with his new major role in government appears to have gone completely unchallenged, with the only potential guardrails being the courts.
Musk using his child as PR?
He truly has taken Washington and the US into his orbit. Musk has caused a meteor storm to last for years to come through the new level of personal control he possesses. He has demonstrated that he is the puppeteer controlling his new puppet (Trump).
Musk appears to be relishing in this, and his son X is indefinitely aware of this too. The video of him telling Trump that he wanted him to “shush his mouth” whilst his father was speaking has since gone viral.
“Taking your child to work day” also seems to hit differently when it is in the grandeur of the oval office. Musk used his child as PR tool to falsely enforce to the American public that he is a good and present father who can get on the working person’s level. However, when X appeared to begin to pick his nose and wipe the residue on the resolute desk, this “sweet image” might have changed for MAGA loyalists.
I believe using your child as a way of humanising you isn’t exactly what I would describe as “cute” or “fatherly” – but rather a public stunt to appear angelic and innocent to the public.
Despite this, Musk continues to deny a hostile takeover of the US government. He insists that he is simply trying to help the American people, through instigating major government reform and stopping fiscal spending where it isn’t needed.
Judicial oversight hampered by social media
However, his power has been challenged by the courts and judges who labelled what he was doing as “unconstitutional”. This led to Musk attacking them online and calling for them to be impeached for “interference”. He took to X to say “these are grounds for impeachment of the judge” because they ordered his proposed spending freeze to be stopped.
Since these comments, and further abuse of judges on X from both Trump and JD Vance, former judges have expressed grave concerns over potential threats of violence that they could face – particularly from die hard MAGA fans who would clearly stop at nothing in the name of Trump.
Due to the fact that judges are also defenceless when countering false allegations, this only makes the situation worse. They cannot challenge the Trump administration’s arguments. It is clearly alarming that Musk’s’ power seems to have gone unchecked by both the constitution and the Trump team. He has evidently exceeded his powers at the expense of congress and voters, purely for his own personal gain.
However, there are some critics of Musk’s’ unchecked power who are brave enough to speak out about it.
Musk’s takeover a “very dangerous moment”
For example, Bernie Sanders said in an interview on CNN that “Musk is clearly running the show”. He warned that the country is at a “very dangerous moment” in time, with an oligarchy taking shape in the US.
Furthermore, Robert Reich – an outspoken critic of Trump and former secretary of labour under President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – believes that there is little that the US can do to constrain Musk and reign him in. However, Reich suggests that a way of stopping him might be to strengthen laws that are applied to social media companies against hate speech as well as disengaging from any further technological endeavours with him.
Yet Musk appears unbothered by his critics. He believes that he can do whatever he wants due to the mandate that Americans gave to Trump during the 2024 election.
At several points during interviews with the press he has claimed that he is restoring the “will of the people”. This seems a little hypocritical considering he is an unelected member of the new government.
But whilst Trump goes off to play golf at Mar a Lago, Musk appears to sit on the golden throne. He continues to spread misinformation online to convince his MAGA cult followers, who show absolute fealty to him, that he is a “man of the people”.
The bromance is worlds apart from the average working person
In fact, Musk is worlds apart from the average working person. He is simply pursuing his own personal interests whilst ripping up the constitution in the process. He is doing this through destroying critical federal agencies, firing civil servants en masse, and showing utter disdain for the rule of law.
Recently, Musk and Trump have sat down with right-wing media outlet Fox News and the journalist Sean Hannity to discuss their relationship. During it, they gushed over each other. In one particularly eery clip, they discussed the Trump campaign and their idea that the media “was trying to drive them apart” by referring to Musk (albeit correctly) as the “President”.
Musk denied this and continued the cheesy bromance on camera as well as stating his adoration for the president.
Trump also praised the DOGE department calling it “tremendous”. However, I wouldn’t say “tremendous’ or “groundbreaking” was a fitting way to describe the department.
Musk’s wrecking ball couldn’t be sending a clearer message
Many people working for the National Nuclear Security Administration have lost their jobs as Musk has taken a wrecking ball to several key government branches which serve the American people.
Cuts to jobs have also included firing hundreds of employees at food and medical testing facilities. This could lead to epidemics and health outbreaks.
Further to this, cuts to USAID and attempts to destroy it seem to have brought a great deal of joy to Musk. He aims to reduce USAID staff from 10,000 employees to just 600.
All these cuts will inevitably lead to great human costs. There could be outbreaks of epidemics and dangerous viruses. The cuts are cruel and incredibly harmful to those in war zones and low-income countries. These people will now struggle to access vital healthcare and nutritious food.
After Nazi salutes, the dismantling of the pillars of democracy, and the tearing up of the constitution and virtually the American flag, the message couldn’t be clearer. Elon Musk not only plans to rule the US, but also the skies, the seas, and the stratosphere.
Featured image via the Canary
