Present at the Destruction
How to make sense of the Musk power grab
Coup? Power grab? Takeover? Autocratic capture? These are just a few of the words being used to describe the revelations that Elon Musk and his team have gained access to the government payment systems at the Treasury Department and sensitive employee data at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Additionally, Musk said on February 3 that he is trying to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is plainly illegal. (Congress would have to vote to dissolve it.)
When tanks roll into the streets and the military overthrows a democratically-elected leader, people know to call it a coup. However, Musk and his team's assaults are multipronged and involve vital but obscure parts of the federal government, so putting a name to it is trickier. (Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat called it a "new kind of coup.") However, all of these words are reasonably accurate to describe what is going on; the result could be as dangerous to democracy as the traditional coup.
The White House said Musk is a “special government employee” who is allowed to work for the government on a temporary basis, and CNN reported that the tech mogul, who reportedly is in contact with Vladimir Putin, also has a security clearance. Trump signed an executive order on January 20 granting Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) "access" to unclassified government data. However, the establishment of DOGE, which is not a department but a presidential advisory board, is of questionable legality; the entity faces multiple lawsuits.
In the space of a few days, DOGE personnel have wreaked havoc on the federal government. On January 31, the Trump Administration pushed out a career Treasury Department civil servant, David Lebryk, after he refused to grant the DOGE team access to the payments center, where the government cleared some $5 trillion in transactions in 2023. The team has the power to track and potentially halt government transactions. At OPM, the government's human resources bureau, DOGE personnel have locked out career civil servants from accessing computer systems, according to Reuters. CNN reported that two USAID servants were put on administrative leave for refusing to grant DOGE personnel access to the agency's computer systems, including classified information. USAID's website is down; its office was closed on February 3 and employees were ordered to work from home.
Because this takeover is so technical, it is being reported with headlines like "Senator Questions Treasury Secretary Over Musk’s Access to Payment System." However, it is dangerous. Throughout the campaign, Trump railed against the “deep state,” which he described as a cadre of bureaucrats out to destroy him. Now, Trump and Musk have created their very own "deep state" to destroy parts of the federal government. While the ultimate goal remains unclear, one clear consequence would be usurping the power of the purse from Congress. Left unchallenged by either Congress or the courts, this effort could demolish the system of checks and balances, leaving the federal government at the mercy of an executive with unchecked power.
Update: This post has been updated to reflect Musk’s role in the Trump Administration after the White House announced it.