Musk's US government 'takeover' sounds alarm bells

WASHINGTON

Elon Musk has begun swinging his wrecking ball at the U.S. government, with concerns growing over the unprecedented power that President Donald Trump has handed to the world's richest man.

Musk has taken control over the U.S. Treasury's payments system that manages trillions of dollars. He single-handedly announced the demise of the USAID humanitarian agency. He has helped drive out top officials.

For a man who likes to rail against unelected bureaucrats, the unelected billionaire has been subject to little accountability as he pushes Trump's drive to shrink the U.S. government.

Trump sought to play down the issue on Feb. 3 when asked about it in the Oval Office, saying, "Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval."

Musk's powers have seemed almost unbounded, leading to accusations by Democrats of an unconstitutional power grab by both him and his fellow business mogul Trump.

So far Musk has been registered as neither a federal employee nor a government official—although U.S. media reported that he had now been registered as a "special government employee."

His young team of so-called "Doge Kids," drawn from his own companies, dramatically seized control of the U.S. Treasury Department's payments system and took key government positions.

They have helped push a drive to get federal employees to take severance payments and quit, with an email that closely resembles a message sent to Twitter employees when Musk took over and later renamed the social network X.

Musk personally announced that the massive USAID humanitarian agency would be "shutting down" during a live chat on X and branded it a "criminal organization."

The U.S. is the world's largest provider of official development assistance, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and most of its support is channeled through USAID.

Trump insisted Monday that "if there's a conflict, we won't let him get near it," but that did not calm critics.

Democrats, who have been largely silent during Trump's first shock-and-awe two weeks in power, began to mobilize against the latest Musk moves.

"No one elected Elon Musk," Senator Elizabeth Warren said.

Democrats on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee were holding an emergency call partly devoted to the issue.

They have bitterly criticized DOGE as an unconstitutional attempt to exert presidential power over funds approved by Congress.

"It's like letting a tiger into the petting zoo and hoping for the best," Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.