Saint Elon

Elon Musk x Vivek Ramaswamy: Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump announced these two oddball entrepreneurs would be leading a new government agency focused entirely on making the obscenely wasteful federal bureaucracy more efficient.

“The Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before,” wrote Trump in his statement announcing the picks. “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time.” The name itself, which can be abbreviated to DOGE, is a reference to a cryptocurrency started as a joke, which Musk aggressively promoted.

pic.twitter.com/042NfHZOQU

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2024

“While it is not yet clear whether this entity will exist within the federal government or outside, an official government agency cannot be created without an act of Congress,” scolded NPR.

The most immediate response from politics-watchers, and from diversity hire/Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, has been to skewer the picks, pointing out that there are two people helming an agency focused on streamlining. Sure, I guess. There are lots of ways this could go poorly. But why the immediate negativity?

“All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” wrote Musk on X. “Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining.”

I’m sorry, but this is a helluvalot better of an idea than not having this department at all, and allowing federal bureaucracy to continue to balloon. The most reasonable objection so far has been from economist Russ Roberts, who points out that, though cutting spending is politically unpopular, that’s the thing that will really make a dent:

The real challenge with actually reducing the size of government is not about waste, fraud, and abuse. It’s about cutting spending which means making people unhappy. That art requires will more than skill. We’ll see. https://t.co/loMQ8dKUcu

— Russ Roberts (@EconTalker) November 13, 2024

He’s not wrong, but if Musk and Ramaswamy can meme and post their way to real power within the federal government, and use it for good not evil, saving taxpayers a little bit of money, count me a supporter.

Over the last 2 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the administrative state is behaving in wildly unlawful ways. But slapping the bureaucracy on the wrist won’t solve the problem, the only right answer is a massive downsizing. https://t.co/EfdJzd9XuT

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024

Secretary of ax-throwing: President-elect Donald Trump just picked Fox News’ Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary. Hegseth served in the Army in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay, but has otherwise been in the media since 2014, making him a nontraditional choice to lead the 1.3 million active-duty troops. He also appears to have been stewing in the intellectual ferment of the New Right, or at least have roots there, to the extent that he’s involved in intellectual spaces at all.

Patrick Deneen was Pete Hegseth’s senior thesis advisor pic.twitter.com/zKOkytIG9R

— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) November 13, 2024

Trump’s picks have been basically all over the place: some outsiders and innovators, some dyed-in-the-wool loyalists, some generic war hawks whose priorities seem to be in conflict with Trump’s purportedly less-interventionist instincts. It remains to be seen whether this motley crew will be effective at carrying out his second-term goals.

Scenes from New York: “A Bronx man seen in a video last year helping Daniel Penny restrain a homeless man on a subway car floor testified on Tuesday that he had stepped in thinking that his assistance would mean that Mr. Penny would release his chokehold,” reports The New York Times. Apparently, the man—Eric Gonzalez—lied to investigators, initially claiming that the homeless man, Jordan Neely, had hit him.

• Possibly the craziest free-range kids story I’ve ever read, courtesy of Lenore Skenazy. A Georgia mother let her 10-year-old walk a mile into town. Nothing happened; he was fine. The mother was arrested later that night, and now must sign a “safety plan”—which would force her, among other things, to surveil her son via an app—or possibly face a year in jail. She refuses to sign. The case is ongoing.
• Stephen Miller, a senior adviser for Trump during his first term who crafted hard-line immigration policy, is expected to play an even larger role in this administration, possibly serving as deputy chief of staff.
• Back in February, two climate activists vandalized the encasement holding the U.S. Constitution. Both pleaded guilty to destruction of government property; one of the vandals, Jackson Green, was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release.
• A few days ago, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat, pleaded with his own party to have an ounce of self-reflection about culture war issues: “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete. But as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” he said on TV. This resulted in wild backlash, including the political science department chair at Tufts University calling Moulton’s office saying he will no longer “facilitate internship opportunities for students”—something Tufts then walked back.
• Please subscribe to my show’s YouTube channel. It is very hard to start a new channel from scratch!
• Yes:

The primary mission of technology and economy policy should be to put everything on the TV price curve. https://t.co/gc1UgaJOf7

— Marc Andreessen ???????? (@pmarca) November 12, 2024

• Scientific American seems to be less and less scientific these days:

Neither should we forget this:
Claiming that men and women would run equally fast, if it wasn’t for biases in how they are treated. pic.twitter.com/SlFwkdLIGr

— Jonatan Pallesen (@jonatanpallesen) November 12, 2024

• lol:

wow crazy that he’s breaking with the longstanding tradition of hiring people who hate your fucking guts pic.twitter.com/x5qsRhamGo

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) November 12, 2024

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