By Sally Goldman
While President Trump has
given billionaire Elon Musk a mandate to reform the United States Federal Government, a growing opposition is mounting to curtail his power, frustrate his effort, and even defeat his campaigns. Musk is seen by President Trump as a reformist, someone who is taking time off his lucrative business to work on the project of trimming the size of the government in Washington, D.C. This will have important results when it succeeds such as reducing the number of people who are Federal employees, and who make up a workforce close to 3 million people, and shrinking the size of the federal budget. This could lead to lower taxes. Yet, the jury on Musk and his department of government efficiency is still on.
Elon Musk confronted a major hurdle few days ago when he demanded that federal workers submit to him a report on what they have done in the previous week prior to his message. The State Department, the intelligence community and its agencies, the FBI all refused to abide by Musk’s request. If such an attitude persists, for sure, Musk’s task will not continue. Many people are resentful of what Musk is doing. When he fires employees, they will lose their income. Musk is the richest man in the world. They will show vengeance toward someone whom they think is not sensitive to the fact that if they lose their income that they will become poor. In this regard, many demonstrations have taken place protesting his firing of employees. One sign read, “I did not vote for President Musk.”
It is also not clear whether the cuts will include the military or not. There is the possibility that several legal actions could be taken to stop Musk from making such a policy of laying off government employees. The media is not sympathetic to Musk and keeps attacking him. The New York Times said that Elon Musk canceled a program that cost taxpayers 8 million dollars and not 8 billion dollars as he claimed.
The argument about the actions of Musk assumes that there is a deep state that aims to preserve the status quo and will not allow Musk to pursue his policies. A simple definition of the deep state is the collection of entrenched interests represented in a number of bureaucrats and bureaucracies which make up the political regime of any system of government. It resists changes to perpetuate its power and influence over people’s lives.
The deep state is public administration and not an invisible government or a secret government. Elon Musk will restructure parts of the U.S. Federal Government. But he will not be able to change the whole of the American Government. The United States Government is too big to change soon. He will not reinvent the United States Government, but he can provide a framework on how the government in the U.S. could change for the better. The German sociologist Max Weber defined “state” as a political organization that is raised by human necessity and is formed with the aim of organizing and managing societies. Trump wants to drain the swamp in Washington, D.C. The Deep State does not trust politicians. And if political campaigns in America become more divisive, the deep state and its institutions will present themselves before the world and the American people as the only protectors of democracy in America against harsh language campaigns and difficult-to-implement government reforms.
