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Editor's Note: The following essay was first published in City Journal and author Substack.
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt, one way to measure the success of the US presidential administration is to tally its achievements over the first 100 days. This standard makes President Trump's second administration extremely successful.
Since January 20th, the President's Cabinet has pursued decisive action in almost every political aspect. However, the most risky high potential initiative is Elon Musk's Ministry of Government Efficiency, or Doge. Founded in the shell of President Obama's US digital services, Doge has been accused of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse to remake the federal government. To anyone else, such an initiative would have seemed strange. But careful hope seems appropriate for Musk, who revolutionizes multiple industries and thrives in high conflict management scenarios.
In the first 30 days, Musk's Doge Method resembles a seek and dostroy mission. Musk directed a small team of lawyers, engineers and talent experts to government agencies to reduce wasteful spending and unnecessary ideological programs. The mask appears to have identified two switches (payments and personnel) that provide maximum leverage. The Doge team quickly organized workforce cuts and canceled billions of dollars in government contracts. This is two steps that reduce spending and reverse the process of left-wing capture.
Ed's spending unit surged 749% despite downsizing, the new Doge-inspired initiative revealed
Last week I had the front row seating for this process. I have released material from the ongoing investigation into ideological corruption in the Ministry of Education and its vast network of NGOs. This material painted a terrible picture of the department's dominant ideology.
In one video, Ministry of Education's funded NGOs will become horrifying for public school educators for their children's “sex work,” especially “people of queer and trans colours” and “LGBTQ+ Youth.” He insisted that it should be. In another, an activist with an NGO from the Ministry of Education claimed that babies develop racial bias and begin “attribute negative traits” to non-white races by the age of five. And finally, I have a clip from an NGO that received a $8 million grant to promote the idea that America is a “structure of racialized power, privilege, and (and) oppression.” It's been published.
This was not a surprise to the intimate observers of the world of education. But once President Trump took office, there are now opportunities for reform. Hours after posting this material, the Department of Education announced that it had cancelled a grant total of $350 million for the equity support centers and the Community Education Institute, which organized such training. I did. “So many situations like this,” declared Musk in X, adding, “Funds for training racist babies will be cancelled.”
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Doge's rapid action reflects many important developments. First, national politics is now highly online, as mask X shapes discourse. Journalists distribute ideas on social media. Government officials can sometimes put them into action within hours. This process creates a noble circle with journalists, policymakers and engineers making information public and corrective actions taken when necessary.
Another notable development is speed. Unlike many government officials, Musk and Cruss' teams operate at a lightning tempo. Their stated ambition is to cancel with billions of dollars government contracts every day, and they use social media feeds to identify waste in real time. They understand that the most visible element of waste is not complete fraud, but ideological programming that does not serve constructive public purposes.
These first strikes at the Ministry of Education may be the start of a broader battle. The public can know that the department is partially acting as a patronage scheme for left-wing ideology. It oversees a large budget, which spreads across universities, schools and NGOs, and advances the monolithic left line in most cases. The question is how far Doge can go to dismantle it.
Some departmental programs are almost certain, including federal student aid and specialized funding for K-12s, but Doge cuts billions more into spending and to help Congress completely eliminate the department. You can set the stage. These targeted missions, in theory, generate permission for greater future actions.
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So far, this approach appears to be fruitful, but like any other initiative involving government, we should be cautious. The bureaucracy has an incredible capacity to survive because of its size. Even if you have an artificial intelligence or team of talented engineers, the Doge team is weak.
Doge has won so far. However, bureaucracy has barely begun to fight back.
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