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.
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!