Where do Elon Musk’s business interests end and Donald Trump’s political interests begin? Trick question—they’re one and the same. How else do you explain the jarring sight of the President of the United States hawking Teslas on the White House South Lawn? Trump has always been a salesman, lending hisContinue Reading
(Small point of order: Musk is both head of DOGE and not head of DOGE, depending on who you ask and what’s legally more convenient at the time. They’re really running up the scoreboard on the secrecy thing.) Or maybe we should look to a neutral party. FBI director KashContinue Reading
Speaking of which, let’s not forget that DOGE has fired people working to prevent bird flu and to safeguard the US nuclear arsenal. (The problem with throwing a chainsaw around is that you don’t make clean cuts.) The agencies in question have reportedly tried to hire those workers back. Fine.Continue Reading
Not only does DOGE not seem to understand this, it has given no indication that it wants to understand. These are the easiest employees to fire, legally speaking, so they’re gone. It even changed the length of the probationary period—from one year of service to two—in order to super-size itsContinue Reading
The thing about the takeover of key US government institutions by the world’s richest man and his strike force of former interns is that it’s happening so fast. It’s been three weeks since Elon Musk’s agents took over the government’s IT and HR departments. Since then, the movements of hisContinue Reading
And savings. They want savings. Specifically they want to subject the federal government to zero-based budgeting, a popular financial planning method in Silicon Valley in which every expenditure needs to be justified from scratch. One way to do that is to offer legally dubious buyouts to almost all federal employees,Continue Reading
While all of this is happening, the Democrats are waiting to elect a new director before they can even think about casting. On Saturday, Democrats will be voting on their next party chair. There are nearly a dozen people running to fill the spot, but the election is mainly seenContinue Reading
