To President Trump’s supporters, the Silicon Valley ethos that Mr. Musk brings to overhauling taxpayer-funded institutions is why he’s needed in Washington, where a permanent political class has proved unwilling or unable to prune a bloated bureaucracy. Previous presidents, like Ronald Reagan, who vowed to pursue smaller government all failed. Mr. Reagan himself quipped in 1964, “a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”
The Trump administration and Elon Musk seem to think drastic upheaval is the only way to tame bloated government bureaucracy. The question is whether they are smashing the Constitution to bits along the way.
That Mr. Musk is the world’s richest person and a huge political donor wielding a chainsaw over federal agencies that regulate his companies and safeguard citizens’ data is seen as less important than the results. And to MAGA loyalists who believe that an anti-Trump “deep state” operates in Washington, the ends are fully justified.
Frustration with Congress’ failure to tackle budget deficits, whichever party is in power, also plays into the narrative of Mr. Musk as the outsider who can cut the Gordian knot.
[Faith Williams, director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program at the Project on Government Oversight,] also expects to see litigation over DOGE’s free-wheeling tactics. Still, even if the courts ultimately overturn specific actions, the damage may already have been done to expectations for how presidents can wield authority. “The norms are being weakened and challenged, and that’s not something that we litigate,” she says.
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