America's New Restorative Fathers: How Elon's Experts Are Tackling Government Waste

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The stock market is tumbling, tariffs are triggering uncertainty, and amidst it all, Donald Trump delivers a stark message to Americans: "Sometimes you have to take the medicine to fix it." This candid admission signals a dramatic shift from traditional political reassurances, acknowledging that economic transformation often requires temporary discomfort.

Meanwhile, a remarkable coalition of tech titans and business leaders has emerged under Elon Musk's leadership. Dubbed the "Restorative Fathers" by our host, these seven accomplished executives have put lucrative careers on pause to tackle government inefficiency through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their initial discoveries are staggering – 50-year-old computer systems managing Social Security, a single bank account handling all federal disbursements, and a mind-boggling $905 million contract for what one executive described as "a simple customer survey I could have done in high school."

The contrast couldn't be more striking: as markets nervously react to economic policy shifts, these private-sector innovators work behind the scenes addressing fundamental government waste. Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Steve Davis (SpaceX), and their colleagues aren't politicians – they're problem solvers applying Silicon Valley efficiency to bureaucratic bloat. Their mission transcends partisan politics; it's about preventing America from "going bankrupt," as one team member plainly stated. This unprecedented experiment raises a fascinating question: Can the entrepreneurial mindset that revolutionized technology now transform government itself? Share your thoughts on which business leader you'd add to the DOGE team, and join us weekly as we track this bold attempt to restore America's financial future.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, good morning.
Welcome back to an Americanistpodcast, my rebrand Woo-hoo.
I want to talk about tariffsand Doge today briefly, because
you know I like to keep it under10 minutes.
Oh my gosh, y'all.
What a thing these tariffs.
It's been three days.

(00:20):
Nothing has changed.
Oh my gosh, it's horrible.
I know the conservative talkshow host has received the
message last week when they allstarted touting the same things
let's give Donald Trump a chance.
Let's give Donald Trump achance.
Well, I can guarantee you thatafter three days, they're going
to have enough of that.
You know the legacy media isgoing to come out and talk about

(00:43):
they're not going to talk aboutthe countries that are
negotiating and deciding that.
You know the legacy media isgoing to come out and talk about
they're not going to talk aboutthe countries that are
negotiating and deciding that.
Hey, maybe, you know, maybe wecan work something out.
They're not going to talk aboutthat because that's not sexy
headlines, so expect a mess ofall kinds of messages.
But I want to talk about thisRolling Stone thing first.
Rolling Stone has an articleout Trump to america.

(01:03):
As markets crash, sometimes youhave to take the medicine.
Now, rolling stone has alwaysbeen critical of donald trump.
I'm going to read a coupleparagraphs.
Uh, donald trump said sunday heis not deliberately tanking the
stock market following hisextreme tariff announcement.
Last week, though, thepresident indicated it's okay if

(01:24):
americans suffer as a result ofhis economic policies.
Well, that's easy for him tosay.
He's the president.
He didn't have to worry aboutanything.
Speaking with reporters on AirForce One, trump was asked if
there was a level of pain in themarkets he wasn't willing to
tolerate.
He called this question sostupid before saying I don't

(01:47):
want anything to go down, butsometimes you have to take the
medicine to fix it.
I agree, but I know a lot ofpeople are not going to be happy
.
We Americans are not willing tosuffer anymore because we've
had it so good for so long, sothis is going to be interesting

(02:07):
as we go along.
He added, perhaps moreoptimistically, that eventually
it's going to straighten out andour country will be solid and
strong again.
The message was a departurefrom Trump sharing and later
resharing a link on Truth Socialto a video claiming that he was
purposely crashing the market.
On Wednesday afternoon, trumpannounced sweeping tariffs that

(02:30):
sent the markets tumblingThursday and Friday.
Us stock futures plunged againon Sunday evening and observers
warned of a looming Black Monday.
So the article goes on.
I will put it out on my account.
If you would like to go finishreading that, I'll put it on my
Americanist blog x account, my xfile.

(02:53):
But the next thing I want totalk about is Doge.
They kind of go hand in hand.
I mean, we are trying tomajorly change some things, and
isn't that what we've all beencrying about here?
We need change, we need cuts,we need this, we need that
america first.
Well, now that we're doing it,it is going to be.
People are going to suffer alittle bit.
However, this is going to be, Ithink, boring to most people

(03:19):
and I expect a huge distraction.
Yes, I'm pulling a gl, a GlennBeck.
I'm predicting some kind of bigdistraction, all right, coming
up just to get our minds off ofthis tariff thing and all of
this.
All right, over here on my exaccount, I want to talk about
Doge from the New York Postarticle that Miranda Devine has

(03:42):
written and I think you know Ilove her and you should go read
it.
I'm gonna try to narrow it down.
I'm not gonna read the wholearticle, it's very long.
It explains the sevenexecutives that are helping Elon
Musk meet Doge.
Doge's patriotic musketeers,led by Elon in the belief that

(04:03):
America needs their expertisenow.
So I'm going to try to do myvery best and go break it down,
scroll through and find theseseven briefly, talk about them
for just a minute.
Here we go, blah, blah, blahand I did put this out on my ex
account.
I'm trying to find the firstone here Joe, joe, gabia, gabia.

(04:24):
Okay, oh my gosh, I can't readthis.
The billionaire okay, hold on,let me find this in a different
print that I can read Bear withme.
All right, excuse me, it's JoeGebbia, g-e-b-b-i-a.
I'm not going to be able topronounce half of these men's
last names.
The billionaire, co-founder ofAirbnb and a close friend of
Musk, has volunteered.

(04:45):
Now has Airbnb been in sometrouble not too long ago?
He has volunteered at Doge tomodernize the retirement process
for federal governmentemployees, contributing what he
calls his designer brain andstartup spirit.
I think this is the guy thatfound that cave where they keep
it all of the paperwork.

(05:05):
It's not online at all.
I loved the challenge, so Ijumped on board.
He told brett bear this is whenthey had brett bear had.
They had them all in one roomand interviewing them.
We're taking the best of siliconvalley and business world,
bringing it into the government.
I'm here because it's aninteresting problem.
We can use design and goodengineering to solve it and

(05:29):
really create a betterexperience for everyone.
All right, I'm going to go onto the next one.
Steve Davis, an aerospaceengineer, is Musk's top
lieutenant from SpaceX and mostrecently ran Musk's boring
company, the tunnel diggingstartup startup.
He is the head of operations ofdoge.
To have the country goingbankrupt would be a very bad

(05:53):
thing, he says.
He and the others have put ourlives on hold because we believe
there is a chance to succeed.
I love these men so far becausethey don't have to do this.
They really don't.
They could go off and enjoytheir multi-million billionaire
lives and they don't have to dothis at all, but they are.
So instead of calling them thefounding fathers, because we

(06:13):
already have founding fathers,I've decided to dub them the
restorative fathers, becausethey're going to restore America
back to what it was, but evenbetter, all right.
Next one Tom Krause, a SiliconValley CEO who has been in
Musk's orbit for 15 years,joined Doge in January to apply
public company standards to thefederal government.

(06:35):
That sounds big and bold andhuge.
He told Barry it was alarmingto find only one bank account
that's used to disperse allmonies that go out on the
federal government.
Moving on to Aram oh my gosh,I'm going to butcher his last
name.
Aram Magahadasi is a youngSilicon Valley software engineer

(06:57):
who works for Musk's companyNeuralink.
He is embedded in the SocialSecurity Administration, where
the computer systems are over 50years old.
I believe this.
Trust me, I've been in the Navy.
All right, you know about him.
Move on to Brad Smith, aNashville-based Rhodes Scholar

(07:19):
Means he's smart, with degreesfrom Harvard and Oxford.
Is a healthcare entrepreneur,so hopefully he's working with
RFKJ.
Is a healthcare entrepreneur,so hopefully he's working with
RFKJ.
He told Bayer his aim was tomake 700 different IT systems at
NH speak to each other.
He also wants researchers toreceive 85% of federal grant
money rather than the current60%, with the rest going to

(07:42):
their universities.
Next up, anthony Armstrong is aformer Morgan Stanley Tech
banker who helped orchestrateMusk's $44 billion acquisition
of Twitter, now X.
He serves as a senior advisorto the director of the Office of
Personnel Management, thefederal government's human
resources department.
His focus is on shrinking thefederal workforce, thank you, by

(08:06):
targeting duplicative functions.
Oh, and, there's a lot of thatin wasteful spending.
He has a big job, all right.
Next up is Tyler Hassan is aTexas energy company executive
who dropped everything to joinDoge because he feels it is his
patriotic duty.
Thank you, sir.
I was running the business from.

(08:28):
I was running five businessesin Houston, he said and I left
that to do this.
And my wonderful wife said gofor it.
And here I am.
This is my giving back to thecountry.
Thank you, sir.
He is embedded, like thedepartment, in the Department of
Interior.
So he works with Bergen, maybe.
Here he says under the Bidenadministration there was no

(08:50):
department oversight whatsoever.
He waived a piece of paper inthe interview a $905 million
contract for a customer servicesurvey.
So so simple.
I could have done this in highschool.
Okay, blah, blah, blah.
Let's see.
I think that's maybe.
That's all it's out on my exaccount.

(09:10):
If you want to go read aboutthem, I think you should.
It's very fascinating.
All right, I'm coming up on 10minutes.
I got to do the question of theday.
Okay, what billionaire,millionaire businessman would
you like to see work with Dogeto help the government reduce
its size and spending.
Also, liberty Line is stillopen for another week.
I kind of bit off more than Icould chew this weekend and I

(09:31):
could not get it done, so we'regoing to leave that line open
for another week.
The topic is still who's yourfavorite US president in history
or what is your favoriteAmerican moment from history?
You can also send me whateveryou want.
Since it's the beginning, youcan send me whatever you want.

(09:53):
I hope this takes off and Ihope we do a good job.
It'll be once a week.
All right, gotta go.
Thank you for listening.
Love y'all Bye.