ArcaMax

No wonder the American people are confused. At first, it’s hard to know who’s actually running the country these days, the elected President Donald Trump or the unelected, unconfirmed “Shadow” President Elon Musk.

But take a closer look and there’s no doubt about it. Who stood alongside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office last week taking questions from reporters for half an hour? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk. Who ordered 2.3 million federal workers to tell him five things they’d done the previous week or be fired? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk. And who was standing up, dominating Donald Trump’s first second-term Cabinet meeting, giving orders to Cabinet s ecretaries? Not Donald Trump, but Elon Musk.

No, that mad man from South Africa, unvetted and unelected to anything, is not the shadow president, he’s the acting president. Another big Trump lie. He said he was going to be a dictator for one day. He didn’t tell us he was going to make Elon Musk a dictator for four years. When does Musk move into the Lincoln Bedroom?

No doubt about it, Musk is running the show, taking a chainsaw to the federal government, already destroying the lives of many American families with his mass firings, and handicapping the ability of government agencies to provide important services.

What’s striking is not only how much harm Musk has done in just one month, but also, despite his reputation as a genius, how badly he’s screwed things up. He fired 300 employees of the National Nuclear Security Agency without realizing they were responsible for guarding America’s nuclear arsenal – and had to hire them back. He fired a group of workers at the Department of Agriculture without realizing they were coordinating the government’s response to bird flu – and had to hire them back. While the nation’s still dealing with the impact of two deadly air crashes, Musk fired FAA employees without realizing they were providing backup to air traffic controllers – and had to rehire them. On DOGE’s website, Musk bragged about saving $8 billion by canceling a diversity program at ICE – only to admit later that the total cost of the program was $8 million, not $8 billion and, in two and a half years, only $2.5 million of it had been spent.

Wait! It gets worse. Under Musk’s orders, VA Secretary Doug Collins proudly announced he was cutting 875 government contracts for a savings of $2 billion. Two days later – after the Washington Post reported those contracts covered such essential services as basic medical care, cancer treatment, recruiting new doctors at the VA’s 170 hospitals, and paying costs of burial services for veterans’ families – Musk and Collins reversed course and renewed all 875 contracts.

But, of course, that didn’t spare veterans from the Musk/Trump massacre. Thanks to a program begun by First Lady Michelle Obama, which requires federal agencies to give veterans priority status in new hires, 30 percent of federal employees today are veterans. Which means that almost one-third of all workers fired by Trump and Musk so far are veterans, one group that Republicans promised never to abandon – until Elon Musk and Donald Trump came along. Thanks for your service, indeed.

And Musk is just getting started. He’s already given federal agencies a mid-April deadline for submitting plans to move their operations out of Washington. He’s targeted cutting the work force at the Social Security Administration in half, cutting EPA by 65 percent, firing 7,000 employees at IRS, gutting the National Park Service, and cutting the Equal Opportunity staff at the Department of Labor by 90 percent.

Here's what’s really galling: While Musk sells himself as the champion against waste and fraud, he himself has pocketed more than $38 billion in federal loans, contracts and subsidies over the years. He wouldn’t be the business success he is today without the federal government. He’s not only cruel, he’s a phony.

Two things for sure. One, you can’t take such a meat ax approach to government without its blowing up in your face. Two, when it does, Trump will try to blame it all on Elon Musk. But don’t be fooled. Trump gave Musk the power. And rather than try to rein him in, Trump has encouraged Musk to be even more “aggressive.” Donald Trump is Elon Musk.

In the meantime, this is the only time I’ve ever agreed with Steve Bannon, who’s called Musk “truly evil.” We don’t need any dude from South Africa wrecking our government, while telling us what democracy is all about.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

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