An insurrection of politicians and bureaucrats

The latest—and perhaps most interesting—leftist hysteria involves the Trump administration’s orders that the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) give the White House the ability to contact employees and that the Treasury Department start revealing its most closely kept payment secrets to the White House. These demands, which came from DOGE, have elicited leftist claims of a coup and demands for fighting in the street—demands that come not only from the rank and file but from elected Democrat politicians.

DOGE isn’t just a bunch of random people storming government offices with Elon Musk at their head. Instead, one of Trump’s first executive orders was to establish the “Department of Government efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal Technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” Cleverly, it’s not a new agency; instead, it’s a reorganization of the existing “United States Digital Service” and reports directly to Trump. Moreover, it’s a temporary organization, meaning it has executive legitimacy without the need for legislation.

Image by Elon Musk’s Grok.

Last week, DOGE did two things while acting on the President’s behalf. First, DOGE insisted that the OPM give it access to its list of employees with their contact information. This led to government employees having a complete mental breakdown.  

Also last week, DOGE sought “access to the payment system that Treasury officials use to disburse funds.” In other words, the President, who is responsible for managing the Treasury Department, sent his agents to acquire information about how Treasury manages its responsibilities. This is useful information for the president, given that Treasury’s payment system controls $6 trillion in disbursements.

The Washington Post implies that the temporary Treasury head, David Lebryk, quit because Elon Musk “surrogates” (i.e., members of the President’s DOGE organization) wanted access to the payment systems pursuant to their mandate under the Executive Order:

Lebryk had a dispute with Musk’s surrogates over access to the payment system the U.S. government uses to disburse trillions of dollars every year, the people said. The exact nature of the disagreement was not immediately clear, they said.

Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration. Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley executive who has now been detailed to Treasury, is among those involved, the people said. Krause did not respond to requests for comment.

Those of us who understand that it is the President’s responsibility to manage the Treasury Department, rather than the department’s right to manage itself, think that Trump and DOGE were acting appropriately and that something fishy is going on with Treasury—and, indeed, a recent tweet from Elon Musk confirms this.

Musk’s tweet came in response to a question from Robby Starbuck, which is why Treasury would be fighting to avoid the boss’s audit. What Musk said was mind-boggling: It’s because the Treasury has effectively been writing blank checks to anybody and everybody, including terrorists.

This is something that ought to outrage every American—and it did. Except that the Democrats weren’t outraged that agencies have been burning through American money, including funding fraud and terrorisms, or that these same agencies are trying to hide their sins. Nor are they angry that government agencies are refusing to give their boss access to their employee databases.

Instead, they’re angry that the head of the Executive branch is trying to root out abuses. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) tweeted her outrage at the President doing his job:

Elon Musk was also a target of the rank and file, all of whom see a “coup.” None, of course, can explain why it’s a coup when the president uses properly appointed agents to investigate secretive activities and information that the bureaucracy is hiding. They do not allege, because they cannot allege, that Musk is directing either power or money to himself. In fact, through his uncompensated labors at Trump’s direction, he is returning money and information to the American people. (Language warning.)

Not everyone is content with just whining on X about the fact that Trump is daring to manage the government. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), the House minority leader, is calling for an insurrection to end Trump’s constitutional authority over the bureaucracies:

These are not idle words. Events in 2020 show us that Democrats take them to heart.

Trump is moving with incredible speed and efficiency to reestablish his constitutional control over the bureaucracies that the American people elected him to manage and bring to heel. It’s to be hoped that he is fully aware that Democrats are working hard to militarize their base and, as Jeffries (illegally?) warned, “fight it in the streets.”

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