King Musk

Elon Musk woke up on January 31st, 2025 with a plan.

By the end of the day, he wanted to become the most powerful person in the United States through a series of hostile takeovers of government agencies by some of his most loyal followers.

No one in the feckless Congress, neutered law enforcement arm, or the judiciary bothered trying to stop him, though the brave men and women of the civil service gave a valiant effort.

Musk has displaced the inner workings of several crucial departments of the Federal government, and not even Donald Trump can do anything about it.

It began directly with Musk, as he threw his power around to remove someone he saw as a direct threat to his companies.

A report from the Washington Post detailed a “clash” with David A. Lebryk at Treasury, after workers with Musk’s DOGE demanded access to various payment systems.

Lebryk resigned rather than give in to the demands, which have been reportedly requested for months. It’s part of the effort of the Administration to halt payments authorized by Congress from going to where they’ve been legally appropriated.

The Treasury information appears to have been given over to Musk through his lackeys, and he can now control the money, including paychecks to federal workers, if he so desires.

Then Reuters reported that Musk’s people had locked the workers of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) out of their own systems, a story I already covered here. OPM acts as the Human Resources Department of the Federal Government, holding the personal information of millions of federal workers.

That takeover provides Musk with all the identifying information he needs to find and track every federal worker, even after they’ve left their post.

Another story from Wired claimed that Musk’s minions had infiltrated the General Services Administration (GSA), tasked with keeping track and monitoring the technology and services federal workers use.

With full access to GSA systems, Musk could monitor workers’ laptops, phone calls, emails, and other communications.

This is all made “legal” through an executive order written by Trump that renamed the U.S. Digital Service to the “U.S. DOGE Service”, meaning that Musk is now an unelected government official with unprecedented access and authority over the Human Resources, technology, and spending of the entire federal government.

The only access he doesn’t have would be to records kept at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) which would have sensitive personal information on people like SCOTUS or Congress.

However, it’s unclear if Trump’s executive order gives Musk authority over NARA and their information.

This follows the firing of 30 officials from DOJ, a forced exodus of FBI agents who were seen as disloyal to Trump, and reports that potential federal workers are asked invasive loyalty questions during the interview process.

The following was leaked out of the FBI and comes from its acting Director, Brian J. Driscoll, Jr. In it, he appears to be standing up to requests for the names of thousands of FBI agents who were involved in investigations and prosecutions of Donald Trump.

Please read it.

The question becomes, of course, who is going to stop this coup?

We know scores of federal workers are standing their ground and refusing to leave their posts willingly, regardless of how bad things get. These people are the best among us and deserve our thanks for their tireless service to our nation.

A few Congressional Democrats have issued statements condemning the actions, but there appears to be little appetite for actually doing something about it.

As always, we the people have the power of our words, our protests, and our ability to withhold our wallets and our labor should the need arise.

We will survive this, and we will come out stronger on the other side.

As Abraham Lincoln said: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it."