Our Blog

This week, we’ll focus on how DOGE’s priorities seem to reflect Musk’s grudges and interests in a less efficient government. Trying to be thorough without being totally thorough (the reign of ignorant terror is as vast as it is deep and consequential), here are several of the most salient examples of the Trump’s administration’s prioritization of corporate interests at the expense of the public. 

Musk Connections: Director and Treasurer of America PAC
Other Corporate Affiliations: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
DOGE Deployments: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Musk Connections: Former Twitter and Tesla Engineer 
DOGE Deployments: Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Musk Connections: Silicon Valley CEO who has been described as a “Musk ally”
Other Corporate Affiliations: CEO of Cloud Software Group; President of Broadcom Software
DOGE Deployment: Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

Corporate Affiliations: Software engineer at Waymo; Founder of start-up Intercept
DOGE Deployment: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

Corporate Affiliations: Engineer at Databricks
DOGE Deployment: Internal Revenue Service; Office of Personnel Management; General Services Administration; Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; USAID

Musk Connections: Intern at SpaceX; Intern at Starlink
Other Corporate Affiliations: Thiel Fellow
DOGE Deployment: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; State Department; USAID; General Services Administration; Education Department; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Energy Department

After a week of rumors that the Trump administration was planning to implement severe cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), it happened—though the White House reportedly denied that it would. This past Friday, senior officials were informed that 5200 relatively recent hires would be fired across multiple agencies at HHS, with 1300 at the CDC specifically. 

In a recent episode of Pod Save America, the hosts argued there was a “right” and “wrong” way to reduce the size of the federal government. We wholeheartedly disagree with that perspective. What the Trump administration is doing is indeed incredibly destructive and “wrong” and ostensibly center, center left and left wing voices need to push back against the idea that there’s a “right” way to slash the federal budget and workforce. We should be pushing for more resources for non-defense agencies, not less. 

Since the start of the Trump administration, there have been no less than 154 aviation disasters, killing a total of 330 people. The American Airlines crash on January 29, 2025 at Reagan National Airport marked the first fatal commercial crash in the United States since 2009. This tracker will be continuously updated to reflect any further cuts to these federal agencies, as well as any aviation-related disasters. 

RDP senior researcher Kenny Stancil spoke with Counterpoint’s Scott Harris about his article, “Where Is the Democratic Opposition?”, and the need to organize an effective and aggressive national Trump opposition movement both inside the Democratic Party and across civil society.

Elon Musk is ignoring laws he doesn’t like at DOGE. This is a strategy he learned from the world of business.

Week 4 of Trump’s presidency proves yet again that Trump is only in it for his billionaire buddies. This past week, Trump and Musk repeatedly reminded us that the federal government is ready to serve the interests of their wealthy friends. In fact, in one case, Trump managed to pair this ongoing corruption with another core theme of his administration: demonization of immigrants. As our Jeff Hauser noted, by reassigning Internal Revenue Service agents to the immigration crackdown, Trump has essentially granted billionaires a “get out of taxes free card.”Let’s take a look at some other recipients of Trumpworld’s largesse (Spoiler alert: The biggest is of course Elon Musk):