I am trying to get my head around our new reality: a private citizen who happens to be the richest man in the world, who owns half of all the satellites orbiting our beleaguered planet, who controls one of the largest social media platforms in the world, who depends on millions of dollars of largess from the federal government, who is, by the way, a native of South Africa, who paid $300 million to the current president’s campaign, who has never been vetted through the proper governmental channels and now has an office in the White House with unfettered access to the Department of Treasury’s $6 trillion payment system.

What is contained in the Treasury’s system? Oh, how about every American’s personal information, and including, according to the New York Times, “sensitive personal information about the millions of Americans who receive Social Security checks, tax refunds and other payments from the federal government.”

What could possibly go wrong with Elon Musk and his mysterious minions at the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in charge of our nation’s federal payment system?

Well, how about everything. With access to our social security numbers (and lord knows what other information that resides on those government servers) by unknown DOGE staffers who have not gone through the proper security clearances that all federal employees must pass, a breach in the system is a disaster in waiting. I would assume that the ruthlessly skilled Chinese and Russian hacker bros are rubbing their hands in glee as they prepare to attack the system with renewed vigor. And who is to say that a defector in Musk’s stable would not accept a truckload of rubles or yuan in exchange for a password or two?

Funds of the federal government are supposed to be approved and controlled by the legislative branch, not solely by the politicized whims of the executive branch, and certainly not by a private citizen from a foreign country with leanings to right-wing political movements in Germany and elsewhere; an unelected man with enough alarming conflicts of business interests in government to rival, well, his billionaire buddy President Donald Trump.

Daniel Ives, tech analyst for Wedbush Securities, said, on CNN Business, “The foundation for Musk’s financial success has been the US government.” His $300 million investment in Trump’s campaign has paid off handsomely. Since Trump’s reelection, Musk’s net worth rose by 25 percent. That’s $65 billion.

Specifying what is potentially vulnerable in the treasury portal, Oregon Democratic senator Ron Wyden remarked, “Social Security and Medicare benefits, grants, payments to government contractors, including those that compete directly with Musk’s own companies. All of it.”

Democrats in Congress are outraged. Reactions from Congressional Republicans? Crickets. Deference not defiance. Cowardness, but never courage.

Good grief, is anyone sufficiently alarmed or are we already too exhausted after two crazy weeks of enduring firehose-levels of institutional takedowns by the president? The red meat campaign issues of DEI purging, expansionist posturing and migrant deporting are no doubt appeasing his MAGA fan base, but, meanwhile, do they notice what many of us horrified Americans are watching in real time? That is, the final gasps of democracy?

This past Sunday the DOGE bullies demanded entry into the US Agency for International Development (USAID) secure area to gain access to classified materials such as personnel files and security systems. That access was denied by the agency’s Director of Security John Voorhees, who was immediately put on administrative leave along with his deputy, adding to the dozens of other experienced federal civil servants purged by the Trump administration for not bending the knee to the president. Musk posted on X that USAID is “a criminal organization,” and that it is “Time for it to die.”

USAID is the largest distributor of foreign aid and comprises less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget.

Where is the transparency as Musk’s team runs roughshod from federal agency to federal agency, demanding access to budgets, records and personnel matters? So far, Team DOGE nor the White House has not listed, for the public record, its staff’s names, qualifications, photos and resumes. I don’t even know how many people are on said team.

Is this any way to run a government where transparency is viewed as weakness and following legal precedents is seen as disloyalty? We know of such governments. Take Russia, a dissolute country of rampant corruption led by a mendacious autocrat who locks up, poisons and murders his critics, no matter in which country they reside. As with Trump 2.0 regime, the Kremlin’s halls are filled with oligarchs and Putin pleasers. Opaqueness and obsequiousness rule the day, public be damned.

Democracy is the hallmark of everything that marks America as exceptional. Freedom of the press and religion are two of the foundations of our greatness. But equally sacrosanct is our system of checks and balances. You know, the three branches of government we studied in grade school. (Is that still even taught anymore?)

Today, there is only one branch of government in charge, run by two billionaire megalomaniacs that appear to hate the very institutions of the country that made them fabulously wealthy. Soon, we will have forgotten what normal felt like.

Notes

USAID workers place on leave: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/us/politics/usaid-official-leave-musk.html

Musk’s net worth grows: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/20/business/elon-musk-wealth-government-help/index.html

Musk gains access to Treasury systems: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/20/business/elon-musk-wealth-government-help/index.html

---