Due to his quick takeover of two U.S. government agencies, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has been able to start a radical reshaping of government and exert unprecedented control over America’s 2.2 million federal employees.
As he implements Trump’s cost-cutting plan to shrink the size of the U.S. government, Musk, 53, the richest man in the world and a Trump buddy, has established a new center of power in Washington in just two weeks.
Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, Musk, the founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, has moved quickly, using groups of current and former workers from his firms as his operatives.
Musk’s initiatives have occasionally threatened to eclipse Trump’s own agenda and have sparked public demonstrations in Washington and a surge of panic among government employees.
This week, Musk’s attempt to abolish USAID, the Agency for International Development, America’s primary humanitarian aid organization to the world, and Trump’s fluctuating trade battle with neighboring Canada and Mexico fought for attention on front pages.
Musk’s actions are a part of Trump’s massive government reorganization, in which he has dismissed and marginalized hundreds of civil servants as part of his initial efforts to reduce the bureaucracy and replace it with more loyalists.
Laptops 1000According to Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, people see “an extraordinary centralization of power in someone who lacks a top-level security clearance and has not been subject to any Senate confirmation process. “
“Musk has unprecedented and centralized control of the basic plumbing of government,” he stated.
But Musk does what Trump wants him to do.
On Monday, the president informed reporters that the billionaire needed to have White House consent before acting.
“Elon cannot and will not do anything without our consent. Where appropriate, we will grant him permission; otherwise, we won’t. However, he reports in.
