These are wild times at TPM because they’re wild times in the American government. It’s hard to keep up with everything happening from one moment to the next. I had not had a chance to look at the new DOGE executive order the President signed this afternoon with Elon Musk standing beside him. I don’t think it’s too much to say that it puts Musk functionally in control of the U.S. government. I know that sounds pretty wild. And that may not apply to high-profile policy — two budget bills or one on Capitol Hill, plans for Gaza. But let me explain what it does.
A DOGE operative, called a “DOGE Team Lead,” will be assigned to every agency, department, etc., of the federal government. That team lead, who will presumably report to Elon Musk since Musk is the head of DOGE, will be in charge of all hiring and firing decisions at their particular department. The EO lays out a government downsizing plan in which only one new government employee can be hired for every four who leave service. It adds various new reasons for termination. And it puts the overall plan for the downsizing in the hands of DOGE, which is to say, Musk. And note here the relationship between the “DOGE Team Leads” and the heads of the various departments …
(b) Hiring Approval. Each Agency Head shall develop a data-driven plan, in consultation with its DOGE Team Lead, to ensure new career appointment hires are in highest-need areas.
(i) This hiring plan shall include that new career appointment hiring decisions shall be made in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, consistent with applicable law.
(ii) The agency shall not fill any vacancies for career appointments that the DOGE Team Lead assesses should not be filled, unless the Agency Head determines the positions should be filled.
(iii) Each DOGE Team Lead shall provide the United States DOGE Service (USDS) Administrator with a monthly hiring report for the agency.
I tell ya, I’m tryin’, dear friends. I’m struggling here not to engage in hyperbole. But I don’t know what else to call these people besides political commissars. And again, they report to Elon Musk. He’s already very clearly operating here as an independent actor whose actions the President blesses after he’s found out what’s happened. This is a parallel overlaying of authority over the entire structure of the U.S. government.
We’re in dystopian quasi-science fiction territory here.
