Billionaire Elon Musk, who is heading US President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal government, gave an update on the effort early on Monday, saying they were working to shut down the US foreign aid agency USAID.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, discussed the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a Monday social media talk on X, which he also owns. Trump has assigned Musk to lead a federal cost-cutting panel.
The conversation, which included former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Republican senators Joni Ernst and Mike Lee, began with Musk saying they were working to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
“It’s beyond repair,” Musk said, adding that Trump agrees it should be shut down.
On Sunday, it was reported that the Trump administration had removed two top security officials at USAID during the weekend after they tried to stop representatives from Musk’s DOGE from gaining access to restricted parts of the building, three sources said.
The website of USAID appeared to still be offline on Saturday and some users could not access it on Sunday. USAID has a staff of more than 10,000 people.
Speaking more broadly about cutting US expenses and fraud, Musk estimated the Trump administration can cut US$1 trillion from the US deficit next year.
Musk did not offer any evidence to support his fraud claim or explain how he reached the amount of US$1 trillion.
Since taking office 11 days ago, Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.
Genuinely curious why Trump is getting rid of historically the US's most reliable source for regime change. For those who don't know, the vast majority of USAID goes strictly to opposition groups in countries the US is on bad terms with, and to the ruling govrnments and millitaries of those we are on good terms with. It's how the US maintains hegemony. Some USAID went to good people and projects, of course, but never for a second think that that was its primary purpose.
One theory I saw is that the US Imperialists have noticed many of their typical regime change attempts, such as in Bolivia and Venezuela, are failing, therefore it isn't any longer an efficient use of funds. Now the US is pivoting to more open-faced aggression via tariffs and other forms of economic warfare, sanctions, and so forth. The reason, is because US hegemony is weakening, and other countries like the PRC are becoming much better alternatives to deal with.
I think that the opposition groups may very well be already established and thus no longer need the kickstart funding, for example LATINUS, (mexican disinformation media, based in the US) is already huge and likely makes a profit from its audience and private donors without the need of USAID or the NED.
That's a worrying conclusion, but thank you. That would make sense.
There is another posibility, the national oligarchs are starting to fund these projects from their own pocket, Salinas Pliego in México, Bukele in el Salvador, Noboa in Ecuador... Bukele is a phenom in social media and is the blueprint for all these jackasses.
I don't see why they would rather not have the US State and super-profits funding them, but that is a possibility too.
I mean its not their decision, its the US decision to keep funding them or not. Of course, these groups would love some sweet extra USD. Anyways, big man cult of personality is back stronger than ever thanks to social media.
Makes sense.
I'm increasingly getting the impression that the US now realizes that the unipolar moment is over, and they're basically cutting their losses in order to consolidate and retrench. The interview that Rubio gave was very telling. He openly admitted that the unipolar moment was an anomaly and there are now multiple great powers again. He also admitted in a different interview that the ability to use sanctions is coming to an end because of BRICS. This was a really good discussion on the whole thing https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/did-the-us-declare-the-end-of-the
The US will continue doing fuckery around the world to be sure, but it looks like they're pulling back to re calibrate their approach at the moment.
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. The US retreating to lick its wounds and re-establish itself as an industrial power doesn't seem entirely feasible under Monopoly Capitalism, with everything so financialized, but if the US pulls it off then I think there's a half-decent shot at genuine proletarianization within the Empire and a resurgance of Socialism as an alternative.
I very much agree. Reindustrializing the US is a Herculean task requiring decades of sustained effort. It demands restructuring supply chains, building infrastructure and factories, training workers, all needing massive investments with no clear funding source in today's political climate and capitalist relations. However, it's important to distinguish feasible goals from the ruling class's aspirations. They frequently ignore material realities, opting instead for decisions rooted in wishful thinking.
Fair enough, that is very true as well!
So some of that was probably going to daddy putin’s opposition…
Potentially. It seems the Russo-Ukrainian war is coming to a close, perhaps by Summer, though USAID and aid for Ukraine are not inherently the same thing.
Because that's a lot of money that isn't going to his favorite charities.
It might be simplistic, but I'm always going to go with Occam's Razor on this: Trump and Elon are just that stupid.
Elon directly said that USAID had a hand funding covid biolab research
I thought COVID wasn't real?
I don't think that's Occam's Razor applied, though. We know the US is controlled by the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Yeah, he is dumb enough to do it but why is he being allowed to?
Exactly.
In a general sense. In the day to day business these ghouls can and will do things that will hurt their mid/long term interest because it fits their vibe or they don't really get it/know the history.
Elon does want to lead a fascist empire, but the nonsense-ai-crypto-bazinga version in his ketamine-head, not the fairly boring but successful, actually existing empire.
I think we are at an interesting time, because it's becoming clear that the Empire is no longer as successful as it once was.
Any question of why Trump does something that doesn't seem to make sense has a very simple answer. He's an idiot. And the answer to your following question is "Yes, he is."
Trump is an idiot, but the United States isn't structured in a way where the President can go against the will of the Bourgeoisie. Behind closed doors there are talks and strategies employed, this isn't a new thing.
I think we are overestimating the amount of solidarity and power of the American bourgeoise, partly because that's the image of strenght they love to project.
The state always holds a dominant position wrt the bourgeoise. If tommorow trump wanted American billionaires merced, there isn't much anyone could do to stop him.
Yes the bourgeoise control american civil society and have some influence over various parts of the government, but trump is the commander of the armed forces and has a strong movement backing him.
Remember that the role of the government is to mediate conflict between and among bourgeoisie interests. The one thing the bourgeoisie all agree on is preventing revolution, so that's the state's primary throughline. But the idea that a single member of the bourgeoisie can go against class interests in a meaningful way is an idea that flies in the face of history.
You are correct, however, that these decisions are likely a reflection of division in the bourgeoisie. Trump is acting out the will of a faction that he himself belongs to, possibly even contributes to at a high level. But that's not going to be all of the bourgeoisie. That's why there's an inner circle of operators, a middle circle of supplicants and appeasers, and an outer circle of opposition.
USAID likely had some specific interests it was pursuing and likely was a pet project of a faction or camp in the bourgeoisie. Destroying it sends a signal to that camp. Most of the choices being made in the first couple of weeks are symbolic, and not being members of the bourgeoisie ourselves, we are likely not able to see all of the symbolism, because it's contextual to them.
We are watching tech attempt to assert its self dominant over classical bourgeoisie power. Who was at trumps side? Information technology represents at much or more fundamental change as industrialization. Its not surprising that we are going to seeing a new struggle for power and a push to shed liberal democracy for something new.
I suppose, but ultimately I don't think Trump would be given the levers of power if the people who put him there didn't think he would do something like this.
Yeah, he's openly very loyal towards bourgeois interests, but I do think it's funny how billionaires have to walk on eggshells around him (meta changing it's moderation policies for example). He's clearly the one in charge. It's an interesting 2 way relationship that I'm sure some marxist has written essays about in the past.
We will see how it all unfolds, eventually.
We haven't had a moron with this strong a cult of personality as president though. If anyone tries to challenge him he has an army of Red Hats who will punish anyone he tells them to
I'll point you to good ol George W. Bush. He was also an idiot with a huge cult following, though different, and the levers of power were pulled in his admin purely for US Imperialist interests.