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Musk Moves With Lightning Speed to Exert Control Over the Government
WSJ ^ | Feb 2 | WSJ

Posted on 02/05/2025 2:55:04 AM PST by RandFan

Musk, the billionaire adviser to President Trump who runs the Department of Government Efficiency, oversaw a successful effort by his representatives to get direct access to a payment system that distributes trillions of dollars to Americans each year. And individuals working for DOGE accessed the U.S. Agency for International Development following a clash with security officials.

The moves marked the start of a far-reaching campaign by Musk to upend the federal government agency by agency, according to his allies. The effort prompted outrage from Democrats, and some Republicans, who said Musk doesn’t have the authority to overturn programs and spending priorities decided by Congress. They also raised concerns about the nature of Musk’s operation, which is run by individuals with ties to the tech sector who haven’t been confirmed by the Senate and could benefit financially from the actions DOGE takes.

“This is completely unprecedented,” said Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

DOGE had initially been conceived as an outside advisory panel. But Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office that established the group within the executive branch. Much about DOGE’s operations remains murky. The Trump administration hasn’t released a list of people working for DOGE or outlined their potential conflicts of interest, and officials haven’t detailed which contracts they have canceled.

Throughout the weekend, Musk posted dozens of messages on X, the social-media platform he owns, where he has amassed more than 215 million followers. He said he planned to shut down some Health and Human Services Department grants, and asserted, without providing evidence, that terrorist groups had received payments processed by the Treasury Department

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: doge; elonmusk
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The pigs are squealing
1 posted on 02/05/2025 2:55:04 AM PST by RandFan
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To: RandFan

Musk doesn’t control the government. He is acting as an agent for Trump. Trump controls the government.


2 posted on 02/05/2025 2:57:30 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
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To: RoosterRedux

Must be over target - FLAK!

Department of Education needs to END.

Audit the IRS.

Audit the fed.

NO tax dollars or highway funds to all of the State until they submit to DOGE auditing of their books.

Same with the major cities. AUDIT them all. Arrest the guilty.


3 posted on 02/05/2025 3:00:31 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: RandFan
… following a clash with security officials.

Yeah, right.

4 posted on 02/05/2025 3:00:55 AM PST by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: RoosterRedux
Trump controls the government.

The executive branch consists of about 3.5 million people, including active duty military, and only two of them are elected officials: Trump and Vance.

5 posted on 02/05/2025 3:02:37 AM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: All

Musk Moves With Lightning Speed to Exert Control Over
the Government but does nothing without Trump’s OK.

Musk runs Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, and oversaw a successful effort to get direct access to a Treasury payment system that distributes trillions of dollars to Americans each year.

And individuals working for DOGE accessed USAID following a clash with security officials.

These moves marked the start of a far-reaching campaign by Musk to upend the federal government agency by agency, according to the wishes of Trump.


6 posted on 02/05/2025 3:05:37 AM PST by Liz
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To: RandFan

Lightning speed? I think he’s gone to ludicrous speed. Deep state better hope he doesn’t go Plaid.


7 posted on 02/05/2025 3:06:15 AM PST by xp38
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To: RandFan

The play of the leftists is to chacterize Musk as uncontrolled and unaccountable.


8 posted on 02/05/2025 3:08:54 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: RoosterRedux
Musk doesn’t control the government. He is acting as an agent for Trump. Trump controls the government.

Through WRITTEN presidential proclamation, Musk and specifically named Musk engineers have been provided higher-than-federal-contractor status.

When I was a federal contractor for +33 years I had an awful lot of access authorized (except procurement approvals) so I can only imagine.

9 posted on 02/05/2025 3:10:36 AM PST by USCG SimTech
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To: USCG SimTech
When I was a federal contractor for +33 years I had an awful lot of access authorized

I, too, was a federal contractor, and I was a full-on Tech and Security Steward... I only had Public Trust clearance.

I also had the full rights to deploy what I wanted to Prod, but I expect that's changed. This was back in 2015 or so.

10 posted on 02/05/2025 3:14:09 AM PST by Lazamataz (The BEST birthday present I ever got WAS DONALD TRUMP WINNING IN 2024!!!)
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To: DouglasKC

“ The play of the leftists is to chacterize Musk as uncontrolled and unaccountable.”

Yes.

What it is is competency and efficiency.


11 posted on 02/05/2025 3:14:56 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: RandFan

“this is completely unprecedented” to expect bureaucrates to be honest.


12 posted on 02/05/2025 3:16:44 AM PST by exnavy (See article IV section 4 of our constitution.)
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To: RandFan

https://archive.is/qzisA -— Archived


13 posted on 02/05/2025 3:27:24 AM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
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To: RandFan

What a glorious development. Elon’s army of CodeWarriors will expose the Taxpayer Money Maytags and those with the Tide in their grubby hands. Pam Bondi will sharpen her pencils and the long awaited road to accountability for those who committed the superlative crimes that have left us with $37 trillion dollars in debt will be brought to justice…


14 posted on 02/05/2025 3:32:42 AM PST by Shady (The Force of Liberty must prevail for the sake of our Children and Grandchildren...)
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To: RandFan

80% on up of Federal employees in the greater DC region are sitting on their azzes at home and pretending to work. They were telecommuting. So these scammers claimed.

How ironic that very soon they will still be at home. But with no Federal paycheck coming in


15 posted on 02/05/2025 3:34:27 AM PST by dennisw (DËMÔNràts - Truth is hate to people who hate truth.)
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To: RandFan

Someone please tell me how to pronounce DOGE. Is it doggie or dodge?
I don’t have tv sound on long enough to catch it


16 posted on 02/05/2025 3:37:50 AM PST by larryjohnson (FReepersonaltrainer)
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To: RandFan

Over the target, keep moving fast


17 posted on 02/05/2025 3:38:52 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: larryjohnson
Is it doggie or dodge?

"Dodge," just like the car.

18 posted on 02/05/2025 3:40:32 AM PST by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: TigerClaws
I suspect that Elon Musk and his team at DOGE might be using Grok-3 to analyze the vast amount of government documents and emails they are gaining access to.

Grok-3, which has been trained on what is claimed to be the world's most powerful AI cluster with 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, is expected to be one of the most powerful models in the current AI environment.

Grok-3 could instantly locate people who are conspiring to advance the Woke agenda, conduct political lawfare, and/or defraud the country if there is evidence of such in the records available.

19 posted on 02/05/2025 3:42:19 AM PST by RoosterRedux ("There's nothing so inert as a closed mind" )
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To: RandFan

“could benefit financially from the actions DOGE takes.”

Like congress with their insider trading?

Heh, congress worried about others horning in on their con.


20 posted on 02/05/2025 4:00:30 AM PST by Sarcazmo (Dr. Sarcazmo esq. DDS, CCNA, DVM)
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