Elon Musk

The gutting of AmeriCorps is yet another callous move made by Elon Musk’s team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. AmeriCorps is the national service program that sends full-time volunteers to some of the most vulnerable and underserved communities in the country, reaching where other public or private sector services fall short. In cutting $400 million in AmeriCorps grant funding, nearly a third of the program’s already modest $1.3 billion annual budget, DOGE has displaced over 30,000 volunteers and disrupted more than 1,000 programs. These cuts are already triggering ripple effects in communities across the country, from halted disaster recovery projects to abandoned school programs and shuttered food banks.

Welcome to week sixteen of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar, where we highlight examples of corporate corruption shaping the Trump administration’s agenda and their material impact on everyday people. Read our first fifteen issues here and follow us on Bluesky and X for updates.

The Musk-damaged agency is unlikely to investigate whether Trump and his allies are profiting from advance knowledge about tariff changes or meme coin shenanigans.

Welcome to Week fifteen of the Revolving Door Project’s Corruption Calendar. This week, the Trump family continued to blur the line between politics and business with Trump 2028 merch and a billion dollar deal with Binance and MGX. Trump Jr. and Eric Trump’s potential stock sales and a new elite Washington club further expose this convergence. President Trump’s pardons of allies, Elon Musk’s apparent sway over personnel picks, and the rollback of consumer and coal miner protections add to the ethical concerns. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s timely stock trades and the resignation of “60 Minutes” executive Bill Owens amid pressure from Paramount executives highlight the deepening entanglement of public office, private business, and media, raising alarm growing erosion of norms and the rule of law. 

This week’s stories show that from the Justice Department to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Trump admin is simultaneously eroding, side-stepping, and outright defying the checks and balances that distinguish a government that is accountable to the public from one that exists simply to enrich the elite. 

Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, bought his way into Trump world and now leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE has illegally taken over the federal government, firing federal employees and canceling grants with little to no regard of any of the reprecussions.

Fascists respond to capitulation with more aggression. Elon Musk has already started targeting firms himself.

Abundance co-author’s word salad about environmental review left us scratching our heads.

Among many instances of blatant corruption, this week saw huge gains for Trump’s crypto firm and huge losses for the EPA’s scientific research arm.

The Democratic Party could spell this out clearly and consistently for voters.

While the lion’s share of this weeks’ news cycle surrounds a potential partial government shutdown (readers of this newsletter know that the government already is substantially shut down by DOGE), Trump and his lackeys continue churning the corruption machine for their own benefit. Trump, Musk, and their underlings shamelessly use the government to get even richer while decimating the government’s capacity to help poor people, farmers, students, women, and well, all of us.

Musk Connections: former Neuralink intern
DOGE Deployments: Department of Homeland Security (DHS), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), General Services Administration (GSA), and the State Department

Musk Connections: Unknown
Other Corporate Connections: Business Analyst at General Dynamics

Musk Connections: Advised Musk’s Twitter purchase
Other Corporate Affiliations: Morgan Stanley; Credit Suisse; Qatar Holding
DOGE Deployment: Senior Advisor, Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

February’s inflation report looks good at first glance. But dig deeper and you’ll see that Musk making flying dangerous is the cause.