February 11, 2025 • 42 mins
Elon Musk is trying to become the CEO of America. How did we get here? Garrison unravels a timeline of catastrophe.
https://shatterzone.substack.com/p/how-the-federal-government-fell
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
As media.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The government of two weeks ago no longer exists. We
are now in a fundamentally different country. Under the authority
President Trump. Elon Musk is leading a de facto cyber
coup of the United States. Using the intentionally vague and
unaccountable department of a government efficiency, Musk is seizing control
(00:30):
of the United states critical digital infrastructure, literally rewriting the
code that runs our country, and culling the federal workforce.
Using the justification of removing government bureaucracy, Musk and the
Trump administration have installed their own batch of bureaucratic tech oligarchs,
made up of former Tesla and SpaceX interns and engineers,
(00:52):
teal fellowship researchers, pallenteer employees, eugenics enthusiasts, and literal nick fuentes,
pilled groypers. Career employees have been locked out of their
respective agencies, both digitally and physically, as the DOGE team
ransacks various departments and accesses wide swaths of sensitive government data.
(01:14):
Agency officials who have tried to resist Musk's seizure of
classified materials have been fired, and more federal employees have
been put on leave, including the entirety of USAIDE. This
effectively amounts to Musk abolishing the whole department, all without
congressional authorization or oversight, not even in executive order from
Trump that extends presidential authority on a whim. The unelected
(01:38):
Elon Musk decided to carry out to the closure of
an entire government agency, and he is far from finished.
Doge has hijacked the Treasury to withhold authorized payments to
multiple agencies, resulting in an ongoing battle of lawsuits and
court orders. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis,
(01:58):
and this episode is an audio companion to an article
I published on the shatter Zone substack linked below in
the description. You can follow along online at shatterzone dot
substack dot com and click the hyperlinks for more information
and sources. Elon Musk has personally directed the General Services
(02:18):
Administration to terminate leases on quote unquote mostly empty federal buildings.
The GSA, essentially the landlord of the federal government, was
one of the first agencies to receive Musks quote unquote
fork in the road deferred resignation letter offering to buy
out the entire workforce. The legality of the letter is
(02:39):
still uncertain as it promises to pay out currently unappropriated
funds IRS. Workers who accepted the resignation offer have already
been asked to return to work until May. The newly
appointed GSA Commissioner, Michael Peters, a private equity executive that
specializes in downsizing corporate real estate, has decided that quote
(03:00):
non DoD federal building space should be reduced fifty percent,
according to a GSA employee who requested to remain anonymous,
on top of planning to cut the entire federal portfolio
by half, DOGE is seeking to cut GSA's own budget
by as much as fifty percent, with talk of consolidating
GSA offices into a few major cities using a quote
(03:23):
unquote hub model. Wired reports that DOGE staff may be
trying to use White House IT credentials to access GSA
computers remotely. An anonymous GSA employee claims that few people
at the agency have elected to take up the voluntary
paid resignation offer, with those who have mostly being of
(03:44):
retirement age. High level Trump appointees used quote unquote scare
tactics in agency emails pressuring career employees to accept the
deferred resignation offer, warning that cost cutting measures will eventually
lead to a further reduction in force. Employees are concerned
that a reduced federal workforce would result in federal buildings
(04:05):
losing their operations and maintenance contracts, with disastrous consequences for
the functionality of government buildings. Quote the brain drain is
going to cripple our ability to maintain the buildings even
more than it already was. We aren't overstaffed unquote for
a GSA employee, they continued, quote, I think this process
(04:27):
is already too far along to stop. I'm hoping we
just need to get to the mid terms unquote. What
is happening across the federal government right now is unprecedented.
But this is not Germany in the nineteen thirties. It's
not the fall of the Soviet Union. We grasp at
analogies to help contextualize current events that escape understanding. There
(04:48):
are similarities, but what's happening is new, very American, very
twenty first century. Think of the growth of the Internet,
social media tech startups in fifty years. What's happening right
now could be talked about in the vein of what
happened to the United States in the mid twenty twenties. Now,
(05:09):
rhetoric of cutting red tape and breaking federal bureaucracy has
been common political clap trap for decades, and previous efforts
have been largely all bark and no bite. But now
there's been a huge chomp. So why now? What happened?
Trump has blamed entrenched federal bureaucracy or the quote unquote
(05:31):
deep state, for preventing him from enacting sweeping change during
his first term. The obstacles Trump encountered didn't just come
from Congress and the courts, but rank and file government
workers who run day to day operations. Last month, the
far right America First Policy Institute published a report titled
Tales from the Swamp, How federal bureaucrats resisted President Trump.
(05:56):
The author, James Shrek, a former Heritage fellow, credits quote
unquote hostile career employees for quote unquote refusing to implement policies.
Shrek says, quote many career employees refused or defied directives
withheld information, slow walked projects that they opposed, performed unacceptably,
(06:18):
and used strategic leaking to undermine the President's agenda unquote.
Trump himself realized this late into his first term and
sought to remedy the situation by revoking civil protections for
tens of thousands of federal career employees, reclassifying them as
at will employees under an executive order called Schedule F.
This allowed Trump to treat large swaths of government employees
(06:41):
as political appointments. In his article for the America First
Policy Institute, Shrek refers to career removal protections as a
quote modern invention that protects entrenched bureaucracy.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Though Biden repealed Schedule F, Trump effectively reinstated the order
on the first day of his second term. Trump promised
to restore his authority to quote remove rogue bureaucrats back
in early twenty twenty three under his Agenda forty seven plan,
vowing to quote wield that power very aggressively unquote. When
(07:15):
Trump first ran on Drain the Swamp in twenty fifteen,
he was referring to corporate lobbyists special interests in Washington corruption,
but now the term is used to deride the so
called administrative state, federal agencies, regulatory boards, and bureaucratic career
employees that maintain the basic functionality of our government. Both
(07:37):
Schedule F and DOGE are part of a too pronged
assault on the administrative state, all in service of consolidating
then amplifying executive power. Trump has fully embraced the unitary
executive theory proposed by the likes of Russell Vaught, Project
twenty twenty five co author and the newly confirmed director
(07:58):
of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although
it's understood that Congress has quote unquote power of the purse,
under unitary executive theory, Trump now believes that funding appropriated
by Congress does not need to be spent. Rather, the
executive branch controls the flow of federal spending, and Congress
merely sets a ceiling on spending that the executive must
(08:21):
not exceed. Under this interpretation of the Constitution, the president
has sole and complete control of the executive Branch, including
all of its agencies and departments. But people in Trump's
circle like JD. Vance and Elon Musk could be pushing
Trump to go even further to where the president considers
both the judicial and legislative branches as purely ceremonial and advisory.
(08:46):
In the words of New Right philosopher Curtis Jarvin, and
arguably we are already well on our way to that point.
This centralized executive power allows the executive branch to achieve
goals I would have previous considered to be quite lofty.
And I'll outlined two of those examples, pulling from the
aspirations of the modern conservative movement. After this ad break,
(09:20):
welcome back to it could happen here, and get ready
to say bye bye to the FBI. Though the right
has typically been thought to be firmly in the back
the blue camp, this isn't always the case, especially on
the more extreme end. The far right militia movement has
long clashed with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI
and ATF. In the aftermath of January sixth, many Mega
(09:44):
supporters found themselves at odds with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Republican politicians began to feed into right wing uproar surrounding
the FBI, as Trump himself became a target for investigations
after the mar Lago raid. In August of twenty twenty two,
Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted defund the FBI. Arizona Representative Paul
(10:05):
Gosar joined in attacks on the Bureau, hosting we must
destroy the FBI, we must save America. That same month,
right wing columnist and podcaster Liz Wheeler published in op
ed titled Abolish the FBI, which called to quote farm
out the vital functions of the FBI and raise the
(10:26):
rest unquote. The new right publication Compact magazine featured a
slightly better written article by the same title, Abolish the
FBI at SAPAC. In March of twenty twenty three, Matt Gates,
noted pedophile advocated to get rid of the FBI among
other federal agencies.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Either get this government back on our side, or we
defund and get rid of Abolish the FBI, CDC, ATFDJ,
every last one of them if they do not come
to heal.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
In a April of twenty twenty three, Trump joined in
in calls to defund the FBI after being charged with
thirty four felon accounts of falsipying business records. Next month,
two former FBI employees testified in a congressional hearing accusing
the bureau of weaponization against conservatives in regards to the
January sixth investigations. The same two former FBI employees who
(11:23):
had their security clearance revoked after espousing J six conspiracy theories.
Later called to quote abolish the FBI at a Heritage
Foundation symposium on the quote weaponization of the US Government
in April of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
You're given that magic wand that ability to be Jim Jordan,
what would you do?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
I think you have to abolish the FBI. That's where
I'm at at this point.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
What now, some people are going to say, Okay, yeah,
we're gonna have to do you just abolish a What
would do you Is there a replacement? I mean, you
can't just not have federal law enforcement, right. I think
in large part you could just not have federal enforces.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
During a live episode of Donald Trump Junior's podcast on
July eighth, twenty twenty four, he called to abolish several
federal agencies, starting with the FBI, as well as the
CIA and the IRS.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Ballish the DEA. You know, I imagine of all the
places to abolish, and I don't know if that's the
best one. I'd start with the FBI, I'd start with
the CIA, I'd start with the IRS. There's a lot
of you know, the DA. Now maybe I know agent
level guys. So if they're going after narcos and stuff
like that, perhaps a little bit more forgiving. They don't
(12:40):
seem to be setting up or in trapping people like
the FBI.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The Trump administration has already begun the process to dismantle
large swaths of the FBI before Cash Mattel has even
been confirmed by the Senate. Eight top FBI officials have
been fired or forced resign by order of Acting Deputy
Attorney General a meal, despite resistance from Acting FBI Director
Brian driscoll, a questionnaire was distributed to FBI supervisors requesting
(13:07):
agents provide information pertaining to their own involvement in the
January sixth investigations. This was believed to be used for
the targeted removal of agency personnel. Last week, the FBI
handed over a list containing the information of five thousand
employees and agents who worked on the January sixth investigations.
FBI leadership initially chose to withhold employee names. In response,
(13:31):
Bove accused the FBI leadership of insubordination. This was ultimately
a fruitless effort, as data seized by Elon Musk's DOGE
team could easily match employee IDs to names. Trump has
since agreed to not publicly release the names of agents
until at least late March as lawsuits continue, and is
(13:52):
required to give two days notice if the administration chooses
to publicly disclose names, but individual agents are still worried.
An anonymous letter from an FBI agent to Warren's quote. Currently,
there is an effort to cull a significant number of
career special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation unquote.
Around one third of FBI agents were told they would
(14:13):
be placed on leave, according to a government source who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, FBI employees have lost
access to systems, only to later regain access, while others
were told to wait to find out about their employee status.
Agents are now trying to negotiate back into their jobs,
with sources saying FBI employees may be able to stay
(14:34):
on if they can prove their loyalty to Trump and
disown the January sixth prosecutions. I write all of this
not in defense of the FBI, but to demonstrate how
far Trump is willing to go to expand his executive
power and transfer law enforcement duties to agencies seen as
more loyal to the president. Though I doubt the FBI
(14:55):
will be completely abolished in the next few years, the
agency could become unrecognizable, a shell of its former self,
with hardline Trump loyalists replacing the existing and already largely
conservative workforce. Alternative agencies perceived as being more loyal to Trump,
like Homeland Security investigations, could start picking up the FBI slack.
(15:18):
According to a senior government source, on day two of
Trump's second term, HSI was instructed to reopen investigations into
the twenty twenty George Floyd protests to quote identify protesters
BLM rioters like they did to us after January sixth, unquote.
For another once considered far fetched goal of the conservative
(15:40):
movement that now seems oddly within grasp, let's talk about
the Department of Education. Conservatives have advocated for dismantling the
Department of Education ever since Jimmy Carter signed its modern
incarnation into law in nineteen seventy nine. Most notably, Ronald
Reagan tried and failed to abolish the department in nineteen
eighty one, but Reagan's Commission ironically strengthened support for the department.
(16:05):
Once Reagan ran into roadblocks he instead sought to limit
the Department's power and influence. Since then, calls to abolish
the Department of Education have been a recurring Republican talking
point among certain think tanks and politicians, but they have
struggled to land sizeable blows against the department. Trump previously
fiddled around with merging the Departments of Education and Labor
(16:25):
during his first term, but that plan went nowhere. In
Trump's own Agenda forty seven plan, released in twenty twenty three,
he expressed his goal of quote closing up the Department
of Education in Washington, d c. Later, at the National
Religious Broadcasters twenty twenty four Christian Media Convention in February
of twenty twenty four, Donald Trump repeated this promise quote,
(16:49):
I will close the Federal Department of Education, and we
will move everything back to the states where it belongs,
where they can individualize education unquote. Project twenty twenty five
out lined how to achieve the effective dismantling of the
department by transferring funding and duties to other departments such
as Health and Human Services and the DOJ. Opposition to
(17:10):
the Department of Education was a frequent topic at the
twenty twenty four Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Robert,
Sophie and I attended multiple panels and events taking aim
at the Department, hosted by groups like Moms for Liberty
and the Heritage Foundation. On the first day of the convention,
the party ratified their official twenty twenty four RNC platform,
(17:33):
which called to quote close the Department of Education in Washington,
DC and send it back to the States where it
belongs and let the states run our educational system as
it should be run unquote. And now the department seems
to be next on the Trump doge chopping block. The
administration is drafting a sweeping executive order. While Trump says
he wants his education nominee Linda McMahon to quote unquote
(17:56):
put herself out of a job. The planned executive order
would not just direct the Secretary of Education to begin
dismantling the department, but also ask Congress for assistance in
formally abolishing the agency. It's unlikely that Trump would get
the sixty Senate votes needed to pass the quote unquote
necessary legislation, but even if they can't manage to technically
(18:18):
abolish the department, he could still try to rip it
scuts out, slash spending, and forcibly resign or fire employees,
basically make the department simply non functioning, much like what
Doge did to USAID. Upwards of sixteen DOGE staffers are
currently listed in the Education Department directory. Federal education employees
have already received the Fork in the Road resignation buyout offer,
(18:42):
while others have been fired for alleged links to DEI.
Without someone like Elon Musk and Trump's administration, there was
no clear path towards implementing some of the more lofty
plans proposed by conservative thought leaders, whether they be Trump's
own Agenda forty seven, the Heritage Foundation's Project twenty twenty five,
or Curtis Yarvin's dream of a national CEO king. Only
(19:05):
Elon Musk could do this. You need someone with his influence, connections, money, experience,
and knowledge of fringe neo reactionary Silicon Valley political theory
to propose and carry out something like Doge. So how
did Musk get here? Though it's common knowledge that Musk
has drifted pretty severely right word the past five years
(19:27):
leading into the twenty twenty four presidential campaign, he was
not an out and proud Trump supporter. As recently as
twenty twenty two, Musk deemed Trump too old to serve
as president, again, tweeting that it was time for Trump
to quote hang up his hat and sail into the
sunset unquote. Initially, Musk threw his support behind the doomed
presidential bid of Florida Governor Ron De Santis, but as
(19:50):
it became clear Trump would be the Republican nominee, Musk
fell in behind his new party line, but his implicit
support of Trump was kept on the down low. The
two met in Florida in March of twenty twenty four
among other wealthy Republican donors, as Trump was lobbying for
campaign funding. The New York Times reported that Musk did
not want to publicly endorse Trump as of early twenty
(20:13):
twenty four, telling friends the most he would do was
an anti Biden endorsement. Instead of public support, Musk would
create his own super pack to secretly help get Trump elected,
timing payments so his fiscal backing of Trump's campaign could
only go public after the election. But all that changed
on July thirteenth, after Trump's brush with death in Butler, Pennsylvania,
(20:36):
Musk seemingly took Trump's call of fight Fight Fight to heart,
tweeting less than an hour later, quote I fully endorse
President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery unquote. This
opened more frequent communication between Musk and Trump. Later that weekend,
both Musk and Peter Teel called Trump to recommend J. D.
(20:57):
Vance as vice president. Next week was the Republican National Convention,
during which Elon Musk was frequently name dropped, both by
official speakers and regular attendees talked about as almost some
kind of mythic right wing superhero. On the final day
of the convention, rumors circulated that Musk himself would make
(21:18):
a surprise appearance on stage, Though said rumors did not
come to fruition. Musk's specter haunted the entirety of the RNC.
Come August, Musk just finished overhauling leadership at his America
Super Pack and was rigorously pushing pro Trump messaging on
X the Everything app. On August twelfth, Musk hosted Trump
(21:40):
in a two hour live streamed phone call dubbed in
x Space. This conversation marked the first time Trump casually
spoke at length about the assassination attempt The pair also
discussed quote unquote migrant crime and the need to eliminate
federal bureaucracy. Trump gave a rare compliment to Musk, calling
(22:01):
him the greatest cutter, followed up by saying, quote, I
need an Elon Musk. I need someone that has a
lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to
close up the Department of Education, move education back to
the States unquote. News outlets were more interested in reporting
on the stream's technical glitches rather than Musk's idea for
(22:22):
a government efficiency commission, to which Trump responded very positively.
Next month, on September fourth, Trump announced that, at the
suggestion of Elon Musk, if elected, he would quote create
a government Efficiency Commission, tasked with conducting a complete financial
and performance audit of the entire federal government and making
(22:43):
recommendations for drastic reforms unquote. Musk himself agreed to be
appointed head of the commission, aiming to cut trillions of dollars.
This announcement was not taken very seriously. The New York
Times called commissions such as this quote a favor at
Washington's solution for delaying dealing with hard problems unquote, and
(23:05):
The Times later reported that the Commission quote can issue
recommendations around federal funding and regulations, but will be powerless
to enact them without executive actions by mister Trump or
funding approval by Congress unquote. Even I can admit that
both myself and some of my coworkers underestimated Doge's ability
to physically carry out Musk's suggestions with no Congressional oversight
(23:29):
or authority. As the election ramped up, musk super Pac
mobilized thousands of canvassers across key swing states and collected
data to target both enthusiastic and unlikely voters. Throughout twenty
twenty four, Musk spent over two hundred and ninety million
dollars in contributions in support of the mega campaign, mostly
(23:49):
via his own super pack. On October fifth, Musk made
his first appearance at an official campaign event, joining Trump
for his return to Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk continued to appear
at Trump rallies in the month leading up to the election.
By election day, Musk was firmly in Trump's inner circle,
spending Election night and most of the next week with
(24:10):
President elect Trump at mar A Lago. After this adbreak,
we will return to discuss how Elon Musk is now
trying to become the CEO of the United States of America. Okay,
(24:31):
we are back, and now a few months after the election,
Elon Musk is doing to the United States exactly what
he did to Twitter. By the end, it still might
technically function on some level, just worse in every way,
prone to glitches and full of Nazis. The previous version
was already bad and harmful, but the new one somehow
(24:53):
sucks even more and no longer has the aspects that
made it semi worth while. The fork in when the
Road deferred resignation letters sent to government employees used the
exact same title as a similar email sent to Twitter
employees after Musk bought the company. The Doge team has
installed sofa beds on the fifth floor of the headquarters
(25:15):
of the Office of Personnel Management to enable working around
the clock, mirroring Musk's previous actions. During his takeover of Twitter,
Musk has brought on some of the same exact people
who helped him take over Twitter, all of whom are
now special government employees with odd job titles but immense power.
It was reported and Wired that a Musk stooge told
(25:38):
General Services Administration workers that the agency will now pursue
quote an AI first strategy unquote, and that the GSA
should operate like a quote unquote startup software company. Musk
has ordered the General Services Administration to terminate leases for
all roughly seven thousand and five hundred five offices, amidst
(26:01):
a national call to return to in person work. This
again is a classic Musk move, taken from his takeover
of Twitter, in which to cut costs, he refused to
pay rent for Twitter offices in London, New York City,
and San Francisco while the buildings were still in use.
A current GSA employee was quoted and wired as saying, quote,
(26:24):
they are acting like this is a takeover of a
tech company unquote. Musk's own personal success hasn't been from
his skill as an inventor or a software engineer. What
he's a proficient at is taking over corporations and molding
them in his image. This is what happened to Tesla,
SpaceX and Twitter. In twenty twenty. Musk called the federal
(26:46):
government quote the ultimate corporation unquote, and now he seeks
to become CEO. In doing this, Musk is following the
tech industry motto of move fast and break things. So
far all his actions bypass Congress, the slow controller of
stable government, having everything be done via executive order and
(27:08):
doge helps to speed run a full reboot of the
administrative state. The motto of the old government may as
well have been move slow and build things. Progress is slow,
but detonation is fast. The breakage of government isn't a
mere side effect or a bug of this expediated form
of rule. It's a feature to reshape the government into
(27:31):
their ideal technocracy. First, breaking things is a requirement. They
might not get away with all of it, and they
don't need to. They're doing so much so fast, knowing
that they will only get away with some of it.
But with new Supreme Court approved presidential immunity and unlimited
pardon power, they can try as much as they want
with zero consequence. These are not the moves you would
(27:54):
make if you wanted a stable government. It's the moves
you would make as a new tech company, which is
why Musk's operation is masked with the Silicon Valley language
of efficiency. The inefficiencies of government are part of the point.
That's what creates stability makes the country a trusted ally
and gives the dollar value. Quote. Regulations can be bothersome
(28:17):
sometimes and downright problematic, but that's kind of the point.
They act as a control on imprecise and rushed decision making.
If the cost of doing business is slowing down the process,
that's the cost that has to be made to quote
a government employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But those inefficiencies and pesky regulations really irritate the Silicon
(28:42):
Valley tech bros who think they are the smartest people
on the planet. It's their view that since they're so smart,
shouldn't they run the country. Musk has a personal interest
in slashing the regulatory state, as it interferes with his
own businesses and dreams of space colonization. Last year, Musk
claimed that Doge quote was the only path to extending
(29:05):
life beyond Earth unquote. The White House Press Secretary has
said that Musk himself will determine when there is a
conflict of interest involving his businesses and Doge. SpaceX alone
has received fifteen point four billion dollars in government contracts,
according to The New York Times. The large reduction in
(29:27):
the federal workforce through the combined efforts of DOGE and
Schedule F. There is an irrefutable similarity to a plan
outlined by New Right blogger Curtis Jarvin, Peter Teel's favorite philosopher.
Last year, Robert Evans did a behind the Bastards on
Curtis Yarvin, and you should absolutely check that out for
more information. In twenty twenty two, Yarvin outlined how a
(29:49):
second Trump term could quote unquote reboot the United States government.
This plan amounts to a corporate takeover of government, which
subsequently re shapes the structure of government, akin to a corporation.
Though in Yarvin's mind, it is not President Trump who
assumes the role of CEO. Instead, the President acts as
(30:11):
chairman of the board, and before inauguration should select a
CEO who is an experienced executive. This appointed CEO could
then quote run the executive branch without any interference from
Congress or the courts, to quote Jarvin, while President Trump
reviews the CEO's performance in the background, Jarvin writes, quote,
(30:32):
most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut
down and replaced with new and efficient systems. Trump will
be monitoring this CEO's performance on TV and can fire
him if need be. Unquote. Musk may believe that he
has successfully maneuvered Trump into appointing him CEO, but Trump
(30:52):
could be well aware of Musk's ambitions, but is keeping
him around as an emergency patsy, ready to fire when needed.
The Trump admin is currently testing the limits of presidential authority,
and once those limits get surpassed by the standards of
Senate Republicans, Musk is the easiest guy to blame and
push out of the administration's inner circle. The first step
(31:16):
in Yarvin's plan has the Trump campaign running on centralizing
executive power to eliminate government inefficiency. This was both in
line with Project twenty twenty five and Musk's suggestion of
an efficiency commission once Trump gets into office. The plan
is as follows. Purge bureaucracy what Yarvin calls rage retire
(31:40):
all government employees. This is essentially being carried out by
doge schedule left and by just pressuring career employees to
accept deferred resignation offers. By threatening future mass layoffs, senior
level officials have been replaced by a batch of loyal
tech oligarchs with links to and Peter Teel. The stupidity
(32:03):
of Doge was almost a secret weapon. The cryptocurrency meanness
made everyone in respectable society not take the idea seriously.
What's the worst an advisory commission could do with no
power to enforce its suggestions. Oops. Another step in Yarvin's
plan is to nullify elite institutions of power like the
(32:25):
media and academia. Musk's takeover of Twitter has gone a
long way in altering the country's information ecosystem. The Trump
adman seems to be utilizing Steve Bannon's flood the Zone
strategy to distract and exhaust the media, as well as
more directed attacks. On January thirty, first, the Department of
(32:45):
Defense kicked out NBC News, The New York Times, NPR,
and Politico from their in house press offices and replace
them with one American News, The New York Post, Brightbart
and huff Post. Under from Doge, the White House has
ordered government agencies to cancel subscriptions to policy news services
(33:06):
from multiple news outlets. A White House advisor told Axios, quote,
the eye of sourn is on more than just Politico.
It's all the media unquote. In terms of attacks on academia,
the federal grant freeze has had devastating effects on university research.
Another step in Yarvin's plan is to co opt Congress
(33:28):
and ignore the courts. This is where we are at
right now. The goal is to reduce both the judicial
and legislative branches to being purely ceremonial and advisory, as
advocated by Yarvin. So far, the Trump administration has effectively
sidestepped the legislative bodies via Elon Musk and Doge. It's
highly unlikely Trump would ever be impeached or removed by
(33:51):
this Congress. Furthermore, this Congress seems to have willfully given
up on their power over the federal budget. To quote
senior government official quote, the real challenge is that Congress
is on board for now in losing their own budgetary authority.
So far, a loan security guard standing outside you, sayed
(34:13):
and the Department of Education has been enough to deter
resistance from the Democratic Party. Last week, I interviewed to
Derek Black, a constitutional law professor at the University of
South Carolina. The full interview will air tomorrow, but here's
his short take on the current situation.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
When Congress is willing to hand the keys over to
the president, then we really no longer really have a democracy,
or at least the constitutional democracy that was created, you know,
a couple centuries ago. So the bigger danger, I think
is that through law itself, Congress sedes more and more
power to the president with a new legislation. So if
(34:51):
Congress were to pass new legislation giving the president more
centralized power, well that would be a concerning thing to
me right now.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
The real road block is the courts. The Trump administration
has already displayed a willingness to ignore the courts, based
on the continued halting of federal spending and grants despite
an order from a US district judge. The Justice Department
has argued that the order to resume funding quote contains
several ambiguous terms and provisions that could be read to
(35:20):
constitute significant intrusions on the executive branch's lawful authorities and
the separation of powers unquote. This past weekend, Musk raged
against a federal judge who ordered to temporarily restrict doja's
access to Treasury Department data. Both Musk and the White
House have labeled the judge an activist with White House
(35:40):
spokesperson Harrison Fields calling the order quote absurd and judicial
overreach unquote. On x the Everything app, Musk boosted claims
calling this a judicial coup and shared an announcement from
California Representative darryl Isa to introduce legislation to quote unquote
stop these rogue judges. But even without added legislation, Musk
(36:05):
and the Trump administration are gearing up to directly defy
judicial authority. On Saturday, Musk shared a tweet reading, I
don't like the president it sets when you defy a
judicial ruling, But I'm just wondering what other options are
these judges leaving us if they're going to blatantly disregard
the Constitution for their own partisan political goals unquote. And
(36:27):
on Sunday, Vice President J. D Vance posted a statement
undermining judicial power. Quote. If a judge tried to tell
a general how to conduct a military operation, that would
be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney
general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor,
that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control executive's legitimate
(36:48):
power unquote. So now it all comes down to force
if the executive branch not just ignores judicial authority but
blatantly defies it, who would be left to enforce the
power of the court. That leads us to another step
in Yarvin's plan, centralize the police, nationalize local law enforcement
(37:09):
to place them under federal control. Trump has flirted with
his tactic in the past, when he deputized Washington police
as US marshals to kill Michael Rhinol In twenty twenty,
DOGE staff threatened to call us marshals when you say
to security officials who have since been fired, denied them
access to classified systems. Jarvin believes this step is paramount quote.
(37:31):
Support of the democratic public is a cipher. I think
that actually all you need is command of the police unquote,
if you have all of the guys with guns who
can physically stop you. Support from the public doesn't hurt, though,
and if things get tricky, Trump could employ the next
step in Yarvin's plan. Mobilize populist support. But crucially, don't
(37:56):
wait until you're at your weakest at the end of
your term after losing an election under popular mandate. Deploy
your empowered supporters at the height of your powers to
oppose any obstruction from government agencies or the courts, Trump
may weaponize a Supreme Court ordained presidential immunity and his
unrestricted pardon power to make any willing actor carry out
(38:18):
his bidding with zero risk of legal consequence. Now, even
if Trump himself isn't aware of Yarvin's plan, his vice
president certainly is. On a far right podcast in twenty
twenty one, JD. Vance laid out a very similar vision
for a second Trump term, using what the Peter Teel
protege described as a dewocification program to purge bureaucracy.
Speaker 7 (38:43):
I think Trump is going to run again in twenty
twenty four. I think he'll probably win again in twenty
twenty four. I think that what Trump should do, like
if I was giving him one piece of advice, fire
every single mid level bureaucrat, every civil sermon in the
administrative state, replace them with our people. And when the courts,
because you will get taken to court. And then when
the courts stop, you stand before the country like Andrew
(39:05):
Jackson did, and say the Chief Justice has made his ruling,
now let him enforce it.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Jarvin writes that the initial goal of this new administration
should not be simply to govern, but to quote figure
out what the Trump administration can actually do when it
assumes the full constitutional power is given to the chief
executive of the executive branch unquote. What the administration can
(39:29):
do once they fully seize this power is so incredibly vast.
Without checks and balances, all those crazy things Trump tried
to do during his first term would be a lot
easier to enact, let alone, whatever Musk and the tech
oligarchs want out of the United States incorporated. But that's
a whole separate topic. The current fight determines the degree
(39:51):
to which this power is seized, and Jarvin notes the
importance of going all the way.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
When Trump in twenty seventeen took office, he took about
zero point zero one percent of power. If Trump in
twenty twenty one wants to have more than zero point
zero zero one percent of power, the only way he
can do it is to take one hundred percent, take
it all at once, completely legally. The real Donald J.
(40:21):
Trump would never have the guts to even think of
doing this, and he's just too old unquote funny pessimism
from Jarvin. There, all of this doesn't even need to
benefit average Trump supporters because Trump's main campaign promise wasn't
mass deportations, fixing the economy, or abolishing the Department of Education.
(40:42):
It was retribution as extremism. Analyst Jared Holt notes, quote,
the right got its base so hooked on the idea
of revenge. He doesn't even need to pretend that any
of this benefits their base in any tangible way. They
just have to say it hurts the wrong people, and
that satisfies them. Unquote. If Trump and Musk continue to
(41:05):
get their way, it could take years to fix. But
the past ten years have shown us you can't really
return to normal. There probably is no going back. The
options are to hunker down and play it slow and
try to survive whatever happens in the next two to
four years while offering passive resistance, or we accelerate to
(41:27):
whatever comes next, put cards on the table, trigger a
kinetic confrontation, and fully manifest the results of this constitutional crisis.
We are dealing with managing crumbles versus a full system's collapse.
Sad face emoji.
Speaker 6 (41:47):
It could happen. Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website.
Coolzonmedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
now find sources for it could happen here, listed directly
in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening,
As media.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
The government of two weeks ago no longer exists. We
are now in a fundamentally different country. Under the authority
President Trump. Elon Musk is leading a de facto cyber
coup of the United States. Using the intentionally vague and
unaccountable department of a government efficiency, Musk is seizing control
(00:30):
of the United states critical digital infrastructure, literally rewriting the
code that runs our country, and culling the federal workforce.
Using the justification of removing government bureaucracy, Musk and the
Trump administration have installed their own batch of bureaucratic tech oligarchs,
made up of former Tesla and SpaceX interns and engineers,
(00:52):
teal fellowship researchers, pallenteer employees, eugenics enthusiasts, and literal nick fuentes,
pilled groypers. Career employees have been locked out of their
respective agencies, both digitally and physically, as the DOGE team
ransacks various departments and accesses wide swaths of sensitive government data.
(01:14):
Agency officials who have tried to resist Musk's seizure of
classified materials have been fired, and more federal employees have
been put on leave, including the entirety of USAIDE. This
effectively amounts to Musk abolishing the whole department, all without
congressional authorization or oversight, not even in executive order from
Trump that extends presidential authority on a whim. The unelected
(01:38):
Elon Musk decided to carry out to the closure of
an entire government agency, and he is far from finished.
Doge has hijacked the Treasury to withhold authorized payments to
multiple agencies, resulting in an ongoing battle of lawsuits and
court orders. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis,
(01:58):
and this episode is an audio companion to an article
I published on the shatter Zone substack linked below in
the description. You can follow along online at shatterzone dot
substack dot com and click the hyperlinks for more information
and sources. Elon Musk has personally directed the General Services
(02:18):
Administration to terminate leases on quote unquote mostly empty federal buildings.
The GSA, essentially the landlord of the federal government, was
one of the first agencies to receive Musks quote unquote
fork in the road deferred resignation letter offering to buy
out the entire workforce. The legality of the letter is
(02:39):
still uncertain as it promises to pay out currently unappropriated
funds IRS. Workers who accepted the resignation offer have already
been asked to return to work until May. The newly
appointed GSA Commissioner, Michael Peters, a private equity executive that
specializes in downsizing corporate real estate, has decided that quote
(03:00):
non DoD federal building space should be reduced fifty percent,
according to a GSA employee who requested to remain anonymous,
on top of planning to cut the entire federal portfolio
by half, DOGE is seeking to cut GSA's own budget
by as much as fifty percent, with talk of consolidating
GSA offices into a few major cities using a quote
(03:23):
unquote hub model. Wired reports that DOGE staff may be
trying to use White House IT credentials to access GSA
computers remotely. An anonymous GSA employee claims that few people
at the agency have elected to take up the voluntary
paid resignation offer, with those who have mostly being of
(03:44):
retirement age. High level Trump appointees used quote unquote scare
tactics in agency emails pressuring career employees to accept the
deferred resignation offer, warning that cost cutting measures will eventually
lead to a further reduction in force. Employees are concerned
that a reduced federal workforce would result in federal buildings
(04:05):
losing their operations and maintenance contracts, with disastrous consequences for
the functionality of government buildings. Quote the brain drain is
going to cripple our ability to maintain the buildings even
more than it already was. We aren't overstaffed unquote for
a GSA employee, they continued, quote, I think this process
(04:27):
is already too far along to stop. I'm hoping we
just need to get to the mid terms unquote. What
is happening across the federal government right now is unprecedented.
But this is not Germany in the nineteen thirties. It's
not the fall of the Soviet Union. We grasp at
analogies to help contextualize current events that escape understanding. There
(04:48):
are similarities, but what's happening is new, very American, very
twenty first century. Think of the growth of the Internet,
social media tech startups in fifty years. What's happening right
now could be talked about in the vein of what
happened to the United States in the mid twenty twenties. Now,
(05:09):
rhetoric of cutting red tape and breaking federal bureaucracy has
been common political clap trap for decades, and previous efforts
have been largely all bark and no bite. But now
there's been a huge chomp. So why now? What happened?
Trump has blamed entrenched federal bureaucracy or the quote unquote
(05:31):
deep state, for preventing him from enacting sweeping change during
his first term. The obstacles Trump encountered didn't just come
from Congress and the courts, but rank and file government
workers who run day to day operations. Last month, the
far right America First Policy Institute published a report titled
Tales from the Swamp, How federal bureaucrats resisted President Trump.
(05:56):
The author, James Shrek, a former Heritage fellow, credits quote
unquote hostile career employees for quote unquote refusing to implement policies.
Shrek says, quote many career employees refused or defied directives
withheld information, slow walked projects that they opposed, performed unacceptably,
(06:18):
and used strategic leaking to undermine the President's agenda unquote.
Trump himself realized this late into his first term and
sought to remedy the situation by revoking civil protections for
tens of thousands of federal career employees, reclassifying them as
at will employees under an executive order called Schedule F.
This allowed Trump to treat large swaths of government employees
(06:41):
as political appointments. In his article for the America First
Policy Institute, Shrek refers to career removal protections as a
quote modern invention that protects entrenched bureaucracy.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Though Biden repealed Schedule F, Trump effectively reinstated the order
on the first day of his second term. Trump promised
to restore his authority to quote remove rogue bureaucrats back
in early twenty twenty three under his Agenda forty seven plan,
vowing to quote wield that power very aggressively unquote. When
(07:15):
Trump first ran on Drain the Swamp in twenty fifteen,
he was referring to corporate lobbyists special interests in Washington corruption,
but now the term is used to deride the so
called administrative state, federal agencies, regulatory boards, and bureaucratic career
employees that maintain the basic functionality of our government. Both
(07:37):
Schedule F and DOGE are part of a too pronged
assault on the administrative state, all in service of consolidating
then amplifying executive power. Trump has fully embraced the unitary
executive theory proposed by the likes of Russell Vaught, Project
twenty twenty five co author and the newly confirmed director
(07:58):
of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although
it's understood that Congress has quote unquote power of the purse,
under unitary executive theory, Trump now believes that funding appropriated
by Congress does not need to be spent. Rather, the
executive branch controls the flow of federal spending, and Congress
merely sets a ceiling on spending that the executive must
(08:21):
not exceed. Under this interpretation of the Constitution, the president
has sole and complete control of the executive Branch, including
all of its agencies and departments. But people in Trump's
circle like JD. Vance and Elon Musk could be pushing
Trump to go even further to where the president considers
both the judicial and legislative branches as purely ceremonial and advisory.
(08:46):
In the words of New Right philosopher Curtis Jarvin, and
arguably we are already well on our way to that point.
This centralized executive power allows the executive branch to achieve
goals I would have previous considered to be quite lofty.
And I'll outlined two of those examples, pulling from the
aspirations of the modern conservative movement. After this ad break,
(09:20):
welcome back to it could happen here, and get ready
to say bye bye to the FBI. Though the right
has typically been thought to be firmly in the back
the blue camp, this isn't always the case, especially on
the more extreme end. The far right militia movement has
long clashed with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI
and ATF. In the aftermath of January sixth, many Mega
(09:44):
supporters found themselves at odds with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Republican politicians began to feed into right wing uproar surrounding
the FBI, as Trump himself became a target for investigations
after the mar Lago raid. In August of twenty twenty two,
Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted defund the FBI. Arizona Representative Paul
(10:05):
Gosar joined in attacks on the Bureau, hosting we must
destroy the FBI, we must save America. That same month,
right wing columnist and podcaster Liz Wheeler published in op
ed titled Abolish the FBI, which called to quote farm
out the vital functions of the FBI and raise the
(10:26):
rest unquote. The new right publication Compact magazine featured a
slightly better written article by the same title, Abolish the
FBI at SAPAC. In March of twenty twenty three, Matt Gates,
noted pedophile advocated to get rid of the FBI among
other federal agencies.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Either get this government back on our side, or we
defund and get rid of Abolish the FBI, CDC, ATFDJ,
every last one of them if they do not come
to heal.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
In a April of twenty twenty three, Trump joined in
in calls to defund the FBI after being charged with
thirty four felon accounts of falsipying business records. Next month,
two former FBI employees testified in a congressional hearing accusing
the bureau of weaponization against conservatives in regards to the
January sixth investigations. The same two former FBI employees who
(11:23):
had their security clearance revoked after espousing J six conspiracy theories.
Later called to quote abolish the FBI at a Heritage
Foundation symposium on the quote weaponization of the US Government
in April of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
You're given that magic wand that ability to be Jim Jordan,
what would you do?
Speaker 6 (11:45):
I think you have to abolish the FBI. That's where
I'm at at this point.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
What now, some people are going to say, Okay, yeah,
we're gonna have to do you just abolish a What
would do you Is there a replacement? I mean, you
can't just not have federal law enforcement, right. I think
in large part you could just not have federal enforces.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
During a live episode of Donald Trump Junior's podcast on
July eighth, twenty twenty four, he called to abolish several
federal agencies, starting with the FBI, as well as the
CIA and the IRS.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Ballish the DEA. You know, I imagine of all the
places to abolish, and I don't know if that's the
best one. I'd start with the FBI, I'd start with
the CIA, I'd start with the IRS. There's a lot
of you know, the DA. Now maybe I know agent
level guys. So if they're going after narcos and stuff
like that, perhaps a little bit more forgiving. They don't
(12:40):
seem to be setting up or in trapping people like
the FBI.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The Trump administration has already begun the process to dismantle
large swaths of the FBI before Cash Mattel has even
been confirmed by the Senate. Eight top FBI officials have
been fired or forced resign by order of Acting Deputy
Attorney General a meal, despite resistance from Acting FBI Director
Brian driscoll, a questionnaire was distributed to FBI supervisors requesting
(13:07):
agents provide information pertaining to their own involvement in the
January sixth investigations. This was believed to be used for
the targeted removal of agency personnel. Last week, the FBI
handed over a list containing the information of five thousand
employees and agents who worked on the January sixth investigations.
FBI leadership initially chose to withhold employee names. In response,
(13:31):
Bove accused the FBI leadership of insubordination. This was ultimately
a fruitless effort, as data seized by Elon Musk's DOGE
team could easily match employee IDs to names. Trump has
since agreed to not publicly release the names of agents
until at least late March as lawsuits continue, and is
(13:52):
required to give two days notice if the administration chooses
to publicly disclose names, but individual agents are still worried.
An anonymous letter from an FBI agent to Warren's quote. Currently,
there is an effort to cull a significant number of
career special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation unquote.
Around one third of FBI agents were told they would
(14:13):
be placed on leave, according to a government source who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, FBI employees have lost
access to systems, only to later regain access, while others
were told to wait to find out about their employee status.
Agents are now trying to negotiate back into their jobs,
with sources saying FBI employees may be able to stay
(14:34):
on if they can prove their loyalty to Trump and
disown the January sixth prosecutions. I write all of this
not in defense of the FBI, but to demonstrate how
far Trump is willing to go to expand his executive
power and transfer law enforcement duties to agencies seen as
more loyal to the president. Though I doubt the FBI
(14:55):
will be completely abolished in the next few years, the
agency could become unrecognizable, a shell of its former self,
with hardline Trump loyalists replacing the existing and already largely
conservative workforce. Alternative agencies perceived as being more loyal to Trump,
like Homeland Security investigations, could start picking up the FBI slack.
(15:18):
According to a senior government source, on day two of
Trump's second term, HSI was instructed to reopen investigations into
the twenty twenty George Floyd protests to quote identify protesters
BLM rioters like they did to us after January sixth, unquote.
For another once considered far fetched goal of the conservative
(15:40):
movement that now seems oddly within grasp, let's talk about
the Department of Education. Conservatives have advocated for dismantling the
Department of Education ever since Jimmy Carter signed its modern
incarnation into law in nineteen seventy nine. Most notably, Ronald
Reagan tried and failed to abolish the department in nineteen
eighty one, but Reagan's Commission ironically strengthened support for the department.
(16:05):
Once Reagan ran into roadblocks he instead sought to limit
the Department's power and influence. Since then, calls to abolish
the Department of Education have been a recurring Republican talking
point among certain think tanks and politicians, but they have
struggled to land sizeable blows against the department. Trump previously
fiddled around with merging the Departments of Education and Labor
(16:25):
during his first term, but that plan went nowhere. In
Trump's own Agenda forty seven plan, released in twenty twenty three,
he expressed his goal of quote closing up the Department
of Education in Washington, d c. Later, at the National
Religious Broadcasters twenty twenty four Christian Media Convention in February
of twenty twenty four, Donald Trump repeated this promise quote,
(16:49):
I will close the Federal Department of Education, and we
will move everything back to the states where it belongs,
where they can individualize education unquote. Project twenty twenty five
out lined how to achieve the effective dismantling of the
department by transferring funding and duties to other departments such
as Health and Human Services and the DOJ. Opposition to
(17:10):
the Department of Education was a frequent topic at the
twenty twenty four Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Robert,
Sophie and I attended multiple panels and events taking aim
at the Department, hosted by groups like Moms for Liberty
and the Heritage Foundation. On the first day of the convention,
the party ratified their official twenty twenty four RNC platform,
(17:33):
which called to quote close the Department of Education in Washington,
DC and send it back to the States where it
belongs and let the states run our educational system as
it should be run unquote. And now the department seems
to be next on the Trump doge chopping block. The
administration is drafting a sweeping executive order. While Trump says
he wants his education nominee Linda McMahon to quote unquote
(17:56):
put herself out of a job. The planned executive order
would not just direct the Secretary of Education to begin
dismantling the department, but also ask Congress for assistance in
formally abolishing the agency. It's unlikely that Trump would get
the sixty Senate votes needed to pass the quote unquote
necessary legislation, but even if they can't manage to technically
(18:18):
abolish the department, he could still try to rip it
scuts out, slash spending, and forcibly resign or fire employees,
basically make the department simply non functioning, much like what
Doge did to USAID. Upwards of sixteen DOGE staffers are
currently listed in the Education Department directory. Federal education employees
have already received the Fork in the Road resignation buyout offer,
(18:42):
while others have been fired for alleged links to DEI.
Without someone like Elon Musk and Trump's administration, there was
no clear path towards implementing some of the more lofty
plans proposed by conservative thought leaders, whether they be Trump's
own Agenda forty seven, the Heritage Foundation's Project twenty twenty five,
or Curtis Yarvin's dream of a national CEO king. Only
(19:05):
Elon Musk could do this. You need someone with his influence, connections, money, experience,
and knowledge of fringe neo reactionary Silicon Valley political theory
to propose and carry out something like Doge. So how
did Musk get here? Though it's common knowledge that Musk
has drifted pretty severely right word the past five years
(19:27):
leading into the twenty twenty four presidential campaign, he was
not an out and proud Trump supporter. As recently as
twenty twenty two, Musk deemed Trump too old to serve
as president, again, tweeting that it was time for Trump
to quote hang up his hat and sail into the
sunset unquote. Initially, Musk threw his support behind the doomed
presidential bid of Florida Governor Ron De Santis, but as
(19:50):
it became clear Trump would be the Republican nominee, Musk
fell in behind his new party line, but his implicit
support of Trump was kept on the down low. The
two met in Florida in March of twenty twenty four
among other wealthy Republican donors, as Trump was lobbying for
campaign funding. The New York Times reported that Musk did
not want to publicly endorse Trump as of early twenty
(20:13):
twenty four, telling friends the most he would do was
an anti Biden endorsement. Instead of public support, Musk would
create his own super pack to secretly help get Trump elected,
timing payments so his fiscal backing of Trump's campaign could
only go public after the election. But all that changed
on July thirteenth, after Trump's brush with death in Butler, Pennsylvania,
(20:36):
Musk seemingly took Trump's call of fight Fight Fight to heart,
tweeting less than an hour later, quote I fully endorse
President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery unquote. This
opened more frequent communication between Musk and Trump. Later that weekend,
both Musk and Peter Teel called Trump to recommend J. D.
(20:57):
Vance as vice president. Next week was the Republican National Convention,
during which Elon Musk was frequently name dropped, both by
official speakers and regular attendees talked about as almost some
kind of mythic right wing superhero. On the final day
of the convention, rumors circulated that Musk himself would make
(21:18):
a surprise appearance on stage, Though said rumors did not
come to fruition. Musk's specter haunted the entirety of the RNC.
Come August, Musk just finished overhauling leadership at his America
Super Pack and was rigorously pushing pro Trump messaging on
X the Everything app. On August twelfth, Musk hosted Trump
(21:40):
in a two hour live streamed phone call dubbed in
x Space. This conversation marked the first time Trump casually
spoke at length about the assassination attempt The pair also
discussed quote unquote migrant crime and the need to eliminate
federal bureaucracy. Trump gave a rare compliment to Musk, calling
(22:01):
him the greatest cutter, followed up by saying, quote, I
need an Elon Musk. I need someone that has a
lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to
close up the Department of Education, move education back to
the States unquote. News outlets were more interested in reporting
on the stream's technical glitches rather than Musk's idea for
(22:22):
a government efficiency commission, to which Trump responded very positively.
Next month, on September fourth, Trump announced that, at the
suggestion of Elon Musk, if elected, he would quote create
a government Efficiency Commission, tasked with conducting a complete financial
and performance audit of the entire federal government and making
(22:43):
recommendations for drastic reforms unquote. Musk himself agreed to be
appointed head of the commission, aiming to cut trillions of dollars.
This announcement was not taken very seriously. The New York
Times called commissions such as this quote a favor at
Washington's solution for delaying dealing with hard problems unquote, and
(23:05):
The Times later reported that the Commission quote can issue
recommendations around federal funding and regulations, but will be powerless
to enact them without executive actions by mister Trump or
funding approval by Congress unquote. Even I can admit that
both myself and some of my coworkers underestimated Doge's ability
to physically carry out Musk's suggestions with no Congressional oversight
(23:29):
or authority. As the election ramped up, musk super Pac
mobilized thousands of canvassers across key swing states and collected
data to target both enthusiastic and unlikely voters. Throughout twenty
twenty four, Musk spent over two hundred and ninety million
dollars in contributions in support of the mega campaign, mostly
(23:49):
via his own super pack. On October fifth, Musk made
his first appearance at an official campaign event, joining Trump
for his return to Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk continued to appear
at Trump rallies in the month leading up to the election.
By election day, Musk was firmly in Trump's inner circle,
spending Election night and most of the next week with
(24:10):
President elect Trump at mar A Lago. After this adbreak,
we will return to discuss how Elon Musk is now
trying to become the CEO of the United States of America. Okay,
(24:31):
we are back, and now a few months after the election,
Elon Musk is doing to the United States exactly what
he did to Twitter. By the end, it still might
technically function on some level, just worse in every way,
prone to glitches and full of Nazis. The previous version
was already bad and harmful, but the new one somehow
(24:53):
sucks even more and no longer has the aspects that
made it semi worth while. The fork in when the
Road deferred resignation letters sent to government employees used the
exact same title as a similar email sent to Twitter
employees after Musk bought the company. The Doge team has
installed sofa beds on the fifth floor of the headquarters
(25:15):
of the Office of Personnel Management to enable working around
the clock, mirroring Musk's previous actions. During his takeover of Twitter,
Musk has brought on some of the same exact people
who helped him take over Twitter, all of whom are
now special government employees with odd job titles but immense power.
It was reported and Wired that a Musk stooge told
(25:38):
General Services Administration workers that the agency will now pursue
quote an AI first strategy unquote, and that the GSA
should operate like a quote unquote startup software company. Musk
has ordered the General Services Administration to terminate leases for
all roughly seven thousand and five hundred five offices, amidst
(26:01):
a national call to return to in person work. This
again is a classic Musk move, taken from his takeover
of Twitter, in which to cut costs, he refused to
pay rent for Twitter offices in London, New York City,
and San Francisco while the buildings were still in use.
A current GSA employee was quoted and wired as saying, quote,
(26:24):
they are acting like this is a takeover of a
tech company unquote. Musk's own personal success hasn't been from
his skill as an inventor or a software engineer. What
he's a proficient at is taking over corporations and molding
them in his image. This is what happened to Tesla,
SpaceX and Twitter. In twenty twenty. Musk called the federal
(26:46):
government quote the ultimate corporation unquote, and now he seeks
to become CEO. In doing this, Musk is following the
tech industry motto of move fast and break things. So
far all his actions bypass Congress, the slow controller of
stable government, having everything be done via executive order and
(27:08):
doge helps to speed run a full reboot of the
administrative state. The motto of the old government may as
well have been move slow and build things. Progress is slow,
but detonation is fast. The breakage of government isn't a
mere side effect or a bug of this expediated form
of rule. It's a feature to reshape the government into
(27:31):
their ideal technocracy. First, breaking things is a requirement. They
might not get away with all of it, and they
don't need to. They're doing so much so fast, knowing
that they will only get away with some of it.
But with new Supreme Court approved presidential immunity and unlimited
pardon power, they can try as much as they want
with zero consequence. These are not the moves you would
(27:54):
make if you wanted a stable government. It's the moves
you would make as a new tech company, which is
why Musk's operation is masked with the Silicon Valley language
of efficiency. The inefficiencies of government are part of the point.
That's what creates stability makes the country a trusted ally
and gives the dollar value. Quote. Regulations can be bothersome
(28:17):
sometimes and downright problematic, but that's kind of the point.
They act as a control on imprecise and rushed decision making.
If the cost of doing business is slowing down the process,
that's the cost that has to be made to quote
a government employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
But those inefficiencies and pesky regulations really irritate the Silicon
(28:42):
Valley tech bros who think they are the smartest people
on the planet. It's their view that since they're so smart,
shouldn't they run the country. Musk has a personal interest
in slashing the regulatory state, as it interferes with his
own businesses and dreams of space colonization. Last year, Musk
claimed that Doge quote was the only path to extending
(29:05):
life beyond Earth unquote. The White House Press Secretary has
said that Musk himself will determine when there is a
conflict of interest involving his businesses and Doge. SpaceX alone
has received fifteen point four billion dollars in government contracts,
according to The New York Times. The large reduction in
(29:27):
the federal workforce through the combined efforts of DOGE and
Schedule F. There is an irrefutable similarity to a plan
outlined by New Right blogger Curtis Jarvin, Peter Teel's favorite philosopher.
Last year, Robert Evans did a behind the Bastards on
Curtis Yarvin, and you should absolutely check that out for
more information. In twenty twenty two, Yarvin outlined how a
(29:49):
second Trump term could quote unquote reboot the United States government.
This plan amounts to a corporate takeover of government, which
subsequently re shapes the structure of government, akin to a corporation.
Though in Yarvin's mind, it is not President Trump who
assumes the role of CEO. Instead, the President acts as
(30:11):
chairman of the board, and before inauguration should select a
CEO who is an experienced executive. This appointed CEO could
then quote run the executive branch without any interference from
Congress or the courts, to quote Jarvin, while President Trump
reviews the CEO's performance in the background, Jarvin writes, quote,
(30:32):
most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut
down and replaced with new and efficient systems. Trump will
be monitoring this CEO's performance on TV and can fire
him if need be. Unquote. Musk may believe that he
has successfully maneuvered Trump into appointing him CEO, but Trump
(30:52):
could be well aware of Musk's ambitions, but is keeping
him around as an emergency patsy, ready to fire when needed.
The Trump admin is currently testing the limits of presidential authority,
and once those limits get surpassed by the standards of
Senate Republicans, Musk is the easiest guy to blame and
push out of the administration's inner circle. The first step
(31:16):
in Yarvin's plan has the Trump campaign running on centralizing
executive power to eliminate government inefficiency. This was both in
line with Project twenty twenty five and Musk's suggestion of
an efficiency commission once Trump gets into office. The plan
is as follows. Purge bureaucracy what Yarvin calls rage retire
(31:40):
all government employees. This is essentially being carried out by
doge schedule left and by just pressuring career employees to
accept deferred resignation offers. By threatening future mass layoffs, senior
level officials have been replaced by a batch of loyal
tech oligarchs with links to and Peter Teel. The stupidity
(32:03):
of Doge was almost a secret weapon. The cryptocurrency meanness
made everyone in respectable society not take the idea seriously.
What's the worst an advisory commission could do with no
power to enforce its suggestions. Oops. Another step in Yarvin's
plan is to nullify elite institutions of power like the
(32:25):
media and academia. Musk's takeover of Twitter has gone a
long way in altering the country's information ecosystem. The Trump
adman seems to be utilizing Steve Bannon's flood the Zone
strategy to distract and exhaust the media, as well as
more directed attacks. On January thirty, first, the Department of
(32:45):
Defense kicked out NBC News, The New York Times, NPR,
and Politico from their in house press offices and replace
them with one American News, The New York Post, Brightbart
and huff Post. Under from Doge, the White House has
ordered government agencies to cancel subscriptions to policy news services
(33:06):
from multiple news outlets. A White House advisor told Axios, quote,
the eye of sourn is on more than just Politico.
It's all the media unquote. In terms of attacks on academia,
the federal grant freeze has had devastating effects on university research.
Another step in Yarvin's plan is to co opt Congress
(33:28):
and ignore the courts. This is where we are at
right now. The goal is to reduce both the judicial
and legislative branches to being purely ceremonial and advisory, as
advocated by Yarvin. So far, the Trump administration has effectively
sidestepped the legislative bodies via Elon Musk and Doge. It's
highly unlikely Trump would ever be impeached or removed by
(33:51):
this Congress. Furthermore, this Congress seems to have willfully given
up on their power over the federal budget. To quote
senior government official quote, the real challenge is that Congress
is on board for now in losing their own budgetary authority.
So far, a loan security guard standing outside you, sayed
(34:13):
and the Department of Education has been enough to deter
resistance from the Democratic Party. Last week, I interviewed to
Derek Black, a constitutional law professor at the University of
South Carolina. The full interview will air tomorrow, but here's
his short take on the current situation.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
When Congress is willing to hand the keys over to
the president, then we really no longer really have a democracy,
or at least the constitutional democracy that was created, you know,
a couple centuries ago. So the bigger danger, I think
is that through law itself, Congress sedes more and more
power to the president with a new legislation. So if
(34:51):
Congress were to pass new legislation giving the president more
centralized power, well that would be a concerning thing to
me right now.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
The real road block is the courts. The Trump administration
has already displayed a willingness to ignore the courts, based
on the continued halting of federal spending and grants despite
an order from a US district judge. The Justice Department
has argued that the order to resume funding quote contains
several ambiguous terms and provisions that could be read to
(35:20):
constitute significant intrusions on the executive branch's lawful authorities and
the separation of powers unquote. This past weekend, Musk raged
against a federal judge who ordered to temporarily restrict doja's
access to Treasury Department data. Both Musk and the White
House have labeled the judge an activist with White House
(35:40):
spokesperson Harrison Fields calling the order quote absurd and judicial
overreach unquote. On x the Everything app, Musk boosted claims
calling this a judicial coup and shared an announcement from
California Representative darryl Isa to introduce legislation to quote unquote
stop these rogue judges. But even without added legislation, Musk
(36:05):
and the Trump administration are gearing up to directly defy
judicial authority. On Saturday, Musk shared a tweet reading, I
don't like the president it sets when you defy a
judicial ruling, But I'm just wondering what other options are
these judges leaving us if they're going to blatantly disregard
the Constitution for their own partisan political goals unquote. And
(36:27):
on Sunday, Vice President J. D Vance posted a statement
undermining judicial power. Quote. If a judge tried to tell
a general how to conduct a military operation, that would
be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney
general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor,
that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control executive's legitimate
(36:48):
power unquote. So now it all comes down to force
if the executive branch not just ignores judicial authority but
blatantly defies it, who would be left to enforce the
power of the court. That leads us to another step
in Yarvin's plan, centralize the police, nationalize local law enforcement
(37:09):
to place them under federal control. Trump has flirted with
his tactic in the past, when he deputized Washington police
as US marshals to kill Michael Rhinol In twenty twenty,
DOGE staff threatened to call us marshals when you say
to security officials who have since been fired, denied them
access to classified systems. Jarvin believes this step is paramount quote.
(37:31):
Support of the democratic public is a cipher. I think
that actually all you need is command of the police unquote,
if you have all of the guys with guns who
can physically stop you. Support from the public doesn't hurt, though,
and if things get tricky, Trump could employ the next
step in Yarvin's plan. Mobilize populist support. But crucially, don't
(37:56):
wait until you're at your weakest at the end of
your term after losing an election under popular mandate. Deploy
your empowered supporters at the height of your powers to
oppose any obstruction from government agencies or the courts, Trump
may weaponize a Supreme Court ordained presidential immunity and his
unrestricted pardon power to make any willing actor carry out
(38:18):
his bidding with zero risk of legal consequence. Now, even
if Trump himself isn't aware of Yarvin's plan, his vice
president certainly is. On a far right podcast in twenty
twenty one, JD. Vance laid out a very similar vision
for a second Trump term, using what the Peter Teel
protege described as a dewocification program to purge bureaucracy.
Speaker 7 (38:43):
I think Trump is going to run again in twenty
twenty four. I think he'll probably win again in twenty
twenty four. I think that what Trump should do, like
if I was giving him one piece of advice, fire
every single mid level bureaucrat, every civil sermon in the
administrative state, replace them with our people. And when the courts,
because you will get taken to court. And then when
the courts stop, you stand before the country like Andrew
(39:05):
Jackson did, and say the Chief Justice has made his ruling,
now let him enforce it.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Jarvin writes that the initial goal of this new administration
should not be simply to govern, but to quote figure
out what the Trump administration can actually do when it
assumes the full constitutional power is given to the chief
executive of the executive branch unquote. What the administration can
(39:29):
do once they fully seize this power is so incredibly vast.
Without checks and balances, all those crazy things Trump tried
to do during his first term would be a lot
easier to enact, let alone, whatever Musk and the tech
oligarchs want out of the United States incorporated. But that's
a whole separate topic. The current fight determines the degree
(39:51):
to which this power is seized, and Jarvin notes the
importance of going all the way.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
When Trump in twenty seventeen took office, he took about
zero point zero one percent of power. If Trump in
twenty twenty one wants to have more than zero point
zero zero one percent of power, the only way he
can do it is to take one hundred percent, take
it all at once, completely legally. The real Donald J.
(40:21):
Trump would never have the guts to even think of
doing this, and he's just too old unquote funny pessimism
from Jarvin. There, all of this doesn't even need to
benefit average Trump supporters because Trump's main campaign promise wasn't
mass deportations, fixing the economy, or abolishing the Department of Education.
(40:42):
It was retribution as extremism. Analyst Jared Holt notes, quote,
the right got its base so hooked on the idea
of revenge. He doesn't even need to pretend that any
of this benefits their base in any tangible way. They
just have to say it hurts the wrong people, and
that satisfies them. Unquote. If Trump and Musk continue to
(41:05):
get their way, it could take years to fix. But
the past ten years have shown us you can't really
return to normal. There probably is no going back. The
options are to hunker down and play it slow and
try to survive whatever happens in the next two to
four years while offering passive resistance, or we accelerate to
(41:27):
whatever comes next, put cards on the table, trigger a
kinetic confrontation, and fully manifest the results of this constitutional crisis.
We are dealing with managing crumbles versus a full system's collapse.
Sad face emoji.
Speaker 6 (41:47):
It could happen. Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website.
Coolzonmedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
now find sources for it could happen here, listed directly
in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening,
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
Show Links
AboutPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!