The Trump Muskacre will become a distinct period in American history. True it continues to unfold so determining the true cost of the purported cost-savings project will take time. But it appears that its days are waning although its affects will be ongoing. Ostensibly it is commissioned to detect cost savings, inefficiencies and waste in the federal government in the amount of $2 trillion. In practice it brought a chainsaw to the federal government. It did so except perhaps based on the government programs and departments Trump does not like and then brutalizes them devoid of any intelligent thought.
In this Trump Muskacre, there was no indication of any identification of fraud, waste, or inefficiencies. Instead, its accomplishments are in imagination and ignorance. It has unleashed no-nothings on the government except for the desire to download personal data on American citizens and perhaps to make databases accessible to Russians and who know who else. Its alleged savings fall far short of the stated goal and are inaccurate. They display ignorance about how the government operates and a lack of desire to learn.
Still, there are lessons We the People can learn from the Trump Muskacre.
AREAS NOT TOUCHED
The areas not touched in the Trump Muskacre are an indicator of the goals of the assault.
“The Big Federal Contracts Musk’s Team Hasn’t Touched” NYT 3/7/25 full page article
“Psst, Musk, Look Over Hear” NYT 3/8/25 Michael Grunwald – Department of Agriculture
“Budget Ax May Benefit Contractors” NYT 3/15/25
The ten highest paid consulting firms scheduled to receive $65 billion in fees this year.
The government has cancelled few large contracts so far.
The increase in cutbacks up will increase the reliance on private firms.
The cutbacks have been imposed on the people who need help the most and where research can make the most difference.
HUMANITARIAN
“America Is Silent on the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis” Nicholas Kristof March 20, 2025
“the Trump administration is now cutting back on humanitarian assistance, aggravating the situation” in Sudan. Soup kitchens are closed
“Our cutting of humanitarian means more children starving, and our silence about the U.A.E. probably means more atrocities.”
“Feds no longer offering free COVID home tests” USA Today March 19, 2025
“Experts Doubt Kennedy Timetable on Autism Cause” NYT April 12, 2025
“Children With Cholera Die Seeking Aid After U.S. Cuts” NYT April 12, 2025
This list could be expanded exponentially. It only increases with each passing day. While big contracts and agriculture are off limits, the people in need at home and abroad have suffered the most from the assault. Indeed scientific research seems to be a particularly favorite target whether it is directly by the government or funded by it at a university. These excludes all the cultural institutions who are being decimated either directly as federal organizations or indirectly as small museums, historical societies, and arts organizations throughout the country who receive federal funding. It used to be said that the Pentagon shared the wealth on large contracts nationwide to individual Congressional districts. The Trump Muskacre works in reverse: it spreads the pain nationally or wherever there are day-care centers or libraries. And this excludes national programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and Veterans.
DOES THE RIGHT HAND KNOW WHAT THE LEFT HAND IS DOING?
“DOGE Cuts Hobble Experts in Moon and Mars Landing” (NYT April 16, 2025)
GPS doesn’t work so well on Mars and the Moon. In its place is the Astrogeology Science, part of the U.S. Geological Survey Center in the Department of the Interior. So in case the United States wanted to return to the Moon before China arrives or wanted to go to Mars, a Musk goal, there are people charged with mapping the landing sites and locating the hidden water-ice deposits that would make the journey a success. At least there were. And when the experienced people left due to retirement offers or simply being cut, they take that experience with them. Score one for China.
It’s a little like mandating k-12 schools to do something and then eliminating the Department of Education which would monitor it.
“A Story about the Environment that Almost Had a Happy Ending” (NYT March 23, 2025)
This article is about the restoration of the Klamath River valley through dam removal. It would bring back salmon and the small farms that have been suffering for so long. Just as these small rural communities and the Klamath Tribes of Oregon were on the brink of success from funding authorized in 2021 under President Biden, the funding was suspended. So close but so far away.
“Musk’s NOAA Staffing Cuts Put Salmon Harvests as Risk” (NYT April 11. 2025)
The Chinook salmon ecosystem is at risk. This affects tribal, commercial, and recreational fishing and they are a main source of food for endangered whale.
“But this year, almost a dozen hatcheries in the Puget Sound region are in limbo because a single employee from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was terminated in February.”
This example is but one that the elimination of the scientific research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This cessation was of scientific work comes on the centennial of the infamous Scopes Trial as a sign of how much things haven’t changed. We may not only be marching back to the 1950s in lifestyles and to 1932 in the financial markets but to the 1920s. If you were an up and coming scientist why would you want to come here assuming you were even allowed into the country?
SOLUTIONS
Suppose we were serious about wanting to cut waste, reduce inefficiency, and save money, what would we do?
“Don’t Kill Fema. Find a Way to Fix It” Senator Peter Welch NYT op-ed January 28, 2025
Welch shows there is another way. It is slower, less flashy, and smaller, but it would get the job done. He agrees with President Trump that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is broken and needs serious reform. But he thinks it is crucial that FEMA helps all Americans in times of chaos and crisis. All Americans deserve to know that Washington will have their back when disaster strikes
He recommends what needs to change is the agency’s long-term recovery process, which kicks in months after the floodwaters recede. There is far too much delay and bureaucracy. More control, leadership and resources must be given to local governments to ensure that disaster recovery efforts are carried out in a timely way. He notes that administrative costs have greatly outpaced the distribution of disaster aid in Vermont.
One notes that in the Trump Muskacre, there have been no recommendations about how to streamline operations to make them more efficient. All there has been has been the elimination of projects and people.
Others have noted the need to end business as usual.
In the Sean Duffy Transportation Secretary confirmation, he noted that another priority is to reduce the red tape that “slows critical infrastructure projects.” (“Senate conforms Trump picks Bessent, Duff7” USA Today January 29, 2025).
“Russell Vought Is Probably the Most Important Person in Trump 2.0” Damon Linker NYT January 26, 2025
Strangely enough, even Russell Vought of all people offers sage advice.
What we need are not plans to burn down the federal bureaucracy — or to transform the presidency into a quasi-authoritarian office empowered to micromanage regulatory policy across the entirety of the executive branch. We need smart ideas for incremental reforms that make the bureaucracy at once more nimble and more humble.
DEMOCRAT FAILURES
The Democrats bring years of failure to the problem of government management.
“Farewell to Foreign Aid as We Know it” Farah Stockman NYT op-ed March 22, 2025
“If you think the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was bad, consider the chaos and death since this administration’s abrupt withdrawal from the entire world.”
We do need to re-imagine foreign aid. It should be leaner and less bureaucratic. It should be based on partnerships that respond to local needs, not pronouncements from Washington. The first step is the acknowledging that the old system had flaws. “Let’s be honest. U.S.A.I.D. could be inefficient and wasteful.”
– Congress, loaded up U.S.A.I.D. with burdensome regulations.
– Year after year grants and conflicts flowed to the same American behemoths that perfected the art of federal fund raising – rent, overhead, salaries and not local partners.
– Local groups are far more cost-effective and attuned to what communities need.
The Democrats did nothing to address these shortcomings leaving it to MAGAs who have been clamoring for reductions/eliminations to fill the void.
“The Republican Party’s NPC Problem — and Ours” Ezra Klein op-ed full page February 26, 2025
It’s a genuine failure of Democrats that they didn’t put more energy into making the government faster and better when they were in charge.
Democrats became champions of a government that didn’t work.
[Trump] didn’t want policy. They didn’t want to go line by line through U.S.A.I.D. and figure out what worked and what didn’t.
They did not want to think through new civil service regulations.
The weak point is Congress.
“Democrats Must Think Beyond Musk” NYT February, 2025
Their goal must be a muscular, lean, effective administrative state that works for Americans.
Mr. Musk’s reckless will not get us there, but neither will the excessive caution and addiction to procedure that Democrats exhibited under President Joe Biden’s leadership.
For example:
$42 billion program for broadband internet in 2021 – has not connected a single household as of December 2024
$7.5 billion electric charging stations – 47 in 15 sites as of December 2024
More than half of the $1.6 trillion appropriated under Mr. Biden’s four signature bills remain unspent and vulnerable to clawback
Imagine designing simple web form to allow companies to express interest in funding under CHIPS and Science Act. It would require:
– Extensive review by lawyers and dozens of others in your agency and the federal government
– Review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 9 months
– Posting plans to the Federal Register
– Addressing comments from the public
– Posting it again
One soon realizes all one’s energy goes into navigating the bureaucracy for months on end. The
1980 Paperwork Reduction Act has not been updated.
“It’s Not Too Late for Congress to Stand Up for Itself” Brendan Buck NYT February 26, 2025.
The failure of Congress to assert itself makes it easier for some members of Congress to support the plundering of an agency.
As it turns out, providing oversight is hard plodding work. It requires intense study, pulling in experts and questioning agency leaders. It requires digging through reports from the Government Accountability Office and an agency inspector general both of which help to identify waste, fraud and programmatic failures.
Needless-to-say, in the Trump Muskacre, none of this occurred.
Perhaps the goal for Americans can be seen in the comments of Scott Siskind who blogs about Silicon Valley under the pseudonym Scott Alexander (“The Vibe Shifts Against the Right” Michelle Goldberg, NYT April 17, 2025). He wrote:
We wanted a swift, lean government that stopped strangling innovation and infrastructure. Instead we got chainsaw-style firings, total devastations of state capacity in exactly the way most likely to strangle innovation more than ever, and the worst and dumbest people in the world gloating about how they solved the “grift” of sending lifesaving medications to dying babies.
