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.
It’s probably really not and the lawsuits probably have a good argument regarding the FACA, but courts are slow and Trump/Musk are basically steamrolling everything they can. An agency not given any delegated power from Congress functionally taking over and commanding agencies that do have delegated power from Congress probably has more than one means of legal attack against it. But courts are slow and any staff that challenge the Musk bulldozer have been relieved of their positions and escorted from their offices.
And way too much of the public is cheering it on.
The most mind-boggling part imho. Trump and Musk doing all this shit doesn’t surprise me at all. Trump especially has been very clear about the things he wanted to do, Project 2025 wasn’t a secret either, and Musk… well, he’s been fascist-adjacent for a long time with his support for right-wingers the world over… But the fact that normal people can look at this and believe it will make their country better somehow is insane to me.