The Trump administration violated the Constitution and founding principles of democracy yet again
with the assistance of their newest billionaire, endangering minorities and furthering the U.S. stock mar-
kets’ plummeting.
Since Trump’s inauguration there has been a lot of talk about entrepreneur Musk and what he intends to do with his newfound governmental capabilities. Among discussions, the word “DOGE” is tossed around. No, DOGE is not the adorable shiba inu meme that society has grown to love. It is something more sinister, led by Musk.
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short, is a group of approximately 30 people
looking to weed out Diversity Equity and Inclusion practices in workplaces across America and reduce government spending. Over 275,000 workers were fired within a month after DOGE’s initiation.
Human Geography teacher Elizabeth Peloquin mentioned the speed at which things are mov-
ing makes a lot of people nervous.
Historically, people in Musk’s position of power have had to go through the legislative processes
involving Congress and Senate voting. It is slower, but it prevents the United States from becoming
an oligarchy, in the sense that the citizens are better represented by their elected officials.
Despite this, after the COVID-19 economic collapse in 2020, Americans were left frazzled by the Biden administration. There was almost a perceived stagnancy or laziness pertaining to how the pandemic was handled, and it can be inferred that this opened a vacuum for the Trump administration to fill by any means necessary.
Musk’s agency goes beyond bipartisan conflict. DOGE is attempting to dismantle USAID, the United States Agency for International Develop ment: a government institution responsible for giving foreign aid to immigrants, in simpler terms. Musk is making executive decisions in the Musk is another step towards fascism, enacting powers that designate him as an “officer of the United States” without actually going through required Senate confirmation. This is in direct violation of Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution.
With that being said, the next question to be reasonably asked is “What’s the limit to Musk and the Trump administration’s power? How might this affect Stillwater’s student body?” “What power do they have? Is really just a question of what are we actually afraid of?” said junior Luca Lukowicz. It goes without saying that undocumented immigrants are attacked the most by DOGE and Musk’s policies, but there are also reports of legal U.S. citizens being detained and deported. Teachers across the United States, as well as in Stillwater, have received instructions on how to react in the event that Immigration and Customs Enforcement storms their schools in an attempt to take away students or fellow co-workers.
Musk did not actually start out political, though, having little to no government background. In fact, his sudden spur towards conservatism started in 2020, after the Biden administration began to enforce
COVID-19 protection mandates that shut down a few of Musk’s Tesla factories. Musk abruptly decided to side with the historically anti-environmentalist party, led by a man who claimed that climate change was a “hoax,” the moment his billion dollar profits were challenged. Regard- less of Musk’s electric car business prioritizing the reduction of CO2 emissions and pollution, at the end of the day he sided with the policies that were best for his bank account.
It is easy to infer that Musk’s involvement in the U.S. government is rooted in a selfishness that will only
lead America to worse-off places, but there is also an unrelenting vitriol present in his ideologies.
Aside from mistreating humans around the Southern border, hypocrisy and harming the economy,
Musk has a history of instigating and curating hate speech on his platform, X, formerly Twitter. Transphobia, immaturity and bigotry are what best characterize his online attitude.
Musk was born in South Africa and raised in an abusive household, diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Despite adversity, before entering his political trenches he served to be quite a promising thinker.
Junior Zach Mogren read a biography about Musk, noting a lot of his attributes in his earlier life. Mogren stated that Musk was “good at optimizing things, making things efficient,” and that he thinks Musk is “very ruthless and brutal while doing that.”
There was always a certain “persistence” present in Musk. When Musk was younger he was invited to a birthday party. His parents wouldn’t drive him, and so he took it upon himself to walk the 20 miles in protest. This strong sense of motivation is what led him to create platforms like SpaceX and Zip, but it has also been his undoing.
Musk is being held back by the Constitution. He believes that it is within his right to defy a staple of
democracy because he is sidled up with the Trump administration resting comfortably in his $360 billion net worth. It is not.
As a result, people across the world have shown an unwillingness to back down in their challenges against Musk. April 5 marked the start of over 1,400 protests. Over 3 million Americans went to their
state capitol, marching as part of the “Hands Off!” movement, standing in opposition to the Trump administration and Musk. Even Musk’s daughter, Vivian Wilson, has spoken out against him.
When you hear the way [Wilson] talks about him and the way he talks, like when he says, ‘Oh, the woke mind virus killed my son. My son is dead.’ It really does reflect this image of a deeply insecure man. He seems like he’s needy and doesn’t really have a grip on reality. He sounds delusional. The government needs a lot of things, and a Musk regime is not one of them.
