Blockers by Michael Lewis review – the quiet heroes who tried to stop Doge

The Guardian ^ | 10 07 2026 | Sam Freedman

[yesthatjallen]

SNIP

Blockers is a loose sequel to the The Fifth Risk, in which [author Michael] Lewis focused on the transition from the Obama to the Trump administration and the disruption caused by the new team’s almost complete lack of interest in their jobs. It focused heavily on what different departments and agencies do and why they matter. This time around the problem is not indifference but malicious intent to destroy. The “blockers” are the dedicated officials who try to stop the wanton and often illegal destruction of their life’s work by Elon Musk’s Doge or other agents of chaos. They range from a researcher working on preventing wildfires to a security guard trying to block Musk’s goons from entering his building, and a lawyer attempting to keep personal tax data from being used to deport undocumented migrants.

In truth, they don’t do much blocking – since they all either end up resigning when they’re asked to do something illegal, or are fired. The title refers more to the assumption by Musk and his fellow travellers that these are the people who are stopping progress and need removing. Much of the book is taken up with descriptions of the valuable work they did before being turfed out.

It would have been good to have a bit more on the villains, whose motivations for participating in Doge are varied. They range from the addled young coders with limited social skills deployed by Musk, to turncoat bureaucrats looking for any easy life, and some very strange characters such as health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, with his bizarre obsession with dead animal parts.

SNIP

[Vision]

“It would have been good to have a bit more on the villains...”

Where do these backwards people come from?

[sauropod]

Yup.