Elon Musk Is Gutting the Government, and Democrats Are Finally Fighting Back

Trump's Gaza Plan Is a Goddamn Fantasy

Yesterday, I started—but then scrapped—a post wondering whether all the yelling on social media (especially Bluesky) was accomplishing anything. Sometimes, it feels like the choir is yelling at the choir, with no real indication that our representatives are actually seeing it. Or paying attention to it—especially since Bluesky is still a relatively small platform where journalists and media types mostly yell about other journalists and media types. Like, I don’t know how much anyone is going to accomplish by SCREAMING AT NPR’S LINDA HOLMES.

But over the last couple of days, it feels like our Democratic representatives are finally listening. And it’s not just AOC—though she is, too—holding an hour-long YouTube session yesterday. I watched part of it, and she’s right: We can’t go after everything at once. We each need to choose a something and focus our energy on that.

That’s what many in the party are doing now—targeting the most serious and immediate danger: Elon Musk. He continues to tear through government bureaucracy, dismantling agencies, firing key personnel, and making it miserable for those who remain. He’s essentially killed USAID, and today, there’s apparently an effort to downsize or eliminate the Department of Education.

There are also reports that 20,000 people have taken Musk up on the government’s offer of six months’ severance in exchange for their resignations. That’s barely more than half a percent—probably the amount of turnover any administration might expect—only Musk is paying them to leave.

Worse, as others have noted, it’s the most in-demand employees who are leaving—the ones who can easily find jobs in the private sector. The best employees. This isn’t Twitter, where Musk can pay top talent to stay. This is the federal government, where salaries are capped, and no one wants to work in this kind of chaos. These are FDA inspectors, the people who facilitate Social Security payments, doctors and nurses at Veterans Affairs, border patrol agents, and engineers. They are the ones who make the government work, and Musk is driving them out while those with fewer job options — and arguably lesser skills — stay behind.

Yesterday, a lot of our Democratic representatives—and it’s not lost on me that most were further left—stood outside the Department of Treasury and put on a performance. They made their voices heard. They expressed outrage, used profanity, and called Elon Musk a "Nepo-Nazi Baby."

Unfortunately, at the same time, Donald Trump was holding a press conference and saying the absolute most insane shit—talking about taking over Gaza, relocating 2 million Palestinians, and building a resort for the benefit of the Israeli people. This isn’t even remotely realistic. The number of troops it would require would necessitate another military draft and lead to thousands of deaths. Any effort Trump might undertake would cost billions and require the concerted efforts of successive administrations.

I have no idea if he put that idea out there just to create more chaos or if his cognitive decline kicked into another gear. I really cannot stress this enough: That’s insane, Mad King bullshit. He basically wants to build Disney World in the most hostile place on the planet, and not even his supporters want this. I checked Breitbart and Fox News, and while those outlets gave fawning coverage, their commenters—the MAGA voters—were irate. “This is not America First. This is Israel First!” They were furious that Trump would even consider spending billions outside the U.S. Anyone treating this idea as legitimate has their own issues. Great job, New York Times, you took the bait (the top six stories on the Times front page are about this Gaza plan).

It’s worth noting that beneath all the chaos, very little is actually being accomplished—except for Elon Musk’s destruction of the administrative state, which will do real damage to the country. The tariffs were rolled back before they began, the OMB freeze was rescinded, only a tiny fraction of employees are taking the buyouts, and even the USPS defied the administration this morning, saying they wouldn’t turn away Temu packages because of the havoc it would cause. What does Trump actually have to show for his first two weeks besides banning pronouns in email signatures and deleting a bunch of web pages?

There’s also some suggestion that the pressure Democrats are applying on Musk is working. NBC News reported this morning that Musk is being reminded his “power is not unchecked.” That was absolutely leaked by the administration to put him in his place. Trump may have (barely) won the popular vote, but Musk is widely disliked by both parties. The fact that the richest man on the planet is a South African who throws up Nazi salutes and is dismantling the federal government with 19-year-old interns isn’t going to sit well with the American public for long. Democrats would do well to keep up the pressure they’re finally applying. Resistance libs are back!

Donald Trump won the popular vote. He has control of both House of Congress, and every Republican (and John Fetterman) is happy to kiss his ass. He has the support of the richest tech billionaires on the planet. Any other President would have marshaled that into actual, lasting change at the legislative level. Trump is just signing meaningless pieces of paper, throwing Sharpies into the audience, and sowing chaos. The ACLU and others have been ready for this, filing lawsuits to knock all of it down. It looks like the politicians are finally starting to catch up. Now, if we can just put Chuck Schumer in a closet.