Summary
Elon Musk claims his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is shutting down payments to federal contractors, including a Lutheran charity, asserting it is eliminating corruption.
This suggests DOGE has access to Treasury’s payment systems, though officials have not confirmed the extent.
Senator Ron Wyden warned that DOGE may interfere with Social Security, Medicare, and government contracts.
Musk also called USAID “a criminal organization” that should “die,” amid DOGE’s growing influence over federal financial operations.
Can I ask? Why does Musk suddenly have this authority? “DOGE” isn’t even a real Department, right? And also, Musk hasn’t been elected or officially confirmed for any government position. Why the fuck is he giving orders and leading departments and having any power whatsoever over the U.S. Treasury and such? I don’t understand how this works. Why doesn’t the U.S. have any… I don’t know, safeguards against this sort of shit? It’s absolutely bonkers to watch this unfold from across the pond.
Musk just walked up, said “I’m in charge now” and everyone’s just complying? Please ELI5.
Technically, Trump just renamed the United States Digital Service to the United States DOGE Service, then created a child agency within it called the United States DOGE Service Temporary Organization reporting directly to the President (which USDS does technically anyways) and hired Musk as a special government employee as head of that. A special government employee is essentially expected to work less than 130 days in the next year and are normally used to fill short term needs, or as expert topic consultants for specific projects, that sort of thing.
USDS is normally basically IT consultancy for other US departments, which is why he has access to a shocking number of keys to the kingdom, as it were.
You don’t have to be confirmed by the Senate for most government jobs (just a specific named handful of high ranking positions, like the Secretaries of various Cabinet Departments), and he was basically given the highest possible position he could without needing to be confirmed by the Senate.
The President has final authority and power over the executive branch and over time increasing power has been placed in the executive branch largely because Congress didn’t want to fight over things every couple of years and the relative stability of a secondary agency staffed with experts was desirable for things like licensing radio bandwidth. USDS isn’t one of these agencies though - it was created by Obama in 2014 to help manage US IT stuff (and basically started from the team that fixed the healthcare.gov site in 2013) and didn’t need to be authorized by Congress because it doesn’t have rulemaking power over anything outside the executive branch and thus doesn’t require Congress to delegate power to it.
As for why he’s giving orders and leading departments, legally he probably shouldn’t be but he’s also been assigned that power by Trump in a way that’s questionably legal. There are at least 3 lawsuits that have been filed arguing that it’s technically an advisory committee and in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. I could totally see a federal judge agreeing with that, but it would eventually go to SCOTUS and we know who’s dick they sucked to get there.
TL;DR: DOGE exists because it’s an existing department (US Digital Service) renamed DOGE, Musk was hired under that department in basically the highest spot that wouldn’t require Senate confirmation and because that department is essentially cross-departmental IT consultancy it gives him access to a shocking amount of federal IT resources. He isn’t being stopped because everyone involved ultimately reports to Trump and Trump has told him to do it. There are at least three lawsuits filed claiming the United States DOGE Service Temporary Organization is in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, but since it’s only existed for like 10 days the courts haven’t really had a chance to even hear arguments about it yet.
Trump said he’s in charge in a private capacity
The Supreme Court is yet to say it’s not allowed
It takes months if not years for a case to be appealed to the supeme court. They don’t even accept most cases.
Any court federal can issue an order on this if a case is brought. Courts cannot do anything unless asked. That’s kind of how the legal process works. Someone, or some AG will file a suit. Might take a few days or weeks.
Three suits have already been filed arguing DOGE violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act. But like you said, the courts take time and DOGE has only existed for like 10 days.
I’m old enough to know how Bush beat Gore
They will keep doing this through the appeals process
He doesn’t. However, that is only according to this pesky technicality called “the law”. If the President does not want to follow the law, and appoints people who also do not care for following the law, then the law stops being a thing to look for for authority; and Musk can do this because Trump says he can.
In the short term, expect this to be shut down by the courts. In the medium term, a bunch of these orders will end up in front of the Supreme Court that unironically said “if the president does it, it might be illegal, but he is absolutely immune from prosecution”. Even if the SC come down on the only legally defensible position, Trump could still say “them and what army”
This is 100% a coup by Trump to centralize power in the executive. When staging a coup, “authority” is merely an inconvenience.
Everyone is not “just complying,” two security directors of USAID were dismissed when they tried to stop the musky henchmen.
We do have safeguards. They’re all being removed one by one by the party in charge. I’m guessing that some just comply because they figure it’s inevitable. On the other hand we have a long history of allowing people in power to do what they want. Bush walked into Iraq, we’ve had many military actions in many countries but haven’t declared war since world war II.
Or maybe Musk is just pushing the boundaries before he’s deported. LOL.
EDIT: changed WWIII to the intended WWII.
Apropos typo on the WW3 part.
LOL. Oops. Should I leave it?
Yes :) hopefully your foreshadowing doesn’t come true however
Because our government is filled with a bunch of geriatric FUCKS who don’t give a shit and whose whole personality is ‘fuck you I got mine’. There are checks and balances and this could be stopped if anyone was fucking useful to any capacity. We shouldn’t have to rise up in the streets or deal with this as that’s the whole god damn point of the gov. But because we allowed corporate interests to infiltrate and line the pockets of these assholes, along with there being no term limits, this is what we get.