Elon Musk calls for the US to 'delete entire agencies' from the federal government
apnews.com
Elon Musk has called for the United States to “delete entire agencies” from the federal government. Musk has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with President Donald Trump’s blessing since assuming leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Elon Musk called Thursday to “delete entire agencies” from the U.S. government as part of his push under President Donald Trump to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.

“A lot of attention has been on USAID for example,” Musk said, referring to Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “There’s like the National Endowment for Democracy. But I’m like, ‘Okay, well, how much democracy have they achieved lately?’”

He added that the U.S. under Trump is “less interested in interfering with the affairs of other countries.”

There are “times the United States has been kind of pushy in international affairs, which may resonate with some members of the audience,” Musk said, speaking to the crowd in the UAE, an autocratically ruled nation of seven sheikhdoms.

  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    10·
    8 hours ago

    Is there an idiom for a stopped clock being “half-right”?

    Where they’re right: USAID definitely has some creepy effects on foreign countries, enabling economic leverage, propaganda, intelligence gathering, and even covert operations.

    Where they’re wrong: But the programs are only welcome in their destinations because they actually do something valuable for their country, and they’re only funded on our end because they yield a net benefit for us.

    Like, a few million dollars to keep infectious diseases under control worldwide is a good deal compared to the cost of letting diseases propagate overseas, stalling out trade and eventually making it to us.

    And they’re right about: The US contributes far and away the most towards these programs, vs. other developed nations. On the surface, that seems unfair.

    But it’s more complicated cuz: This is kinda part of the gig when it comes to owning the global reserve currency. You’re gonna suffer more of the damage from an unstable world, so you have an incentive to spend more to stabilize the world. And you want a big portion of every nation’s economy to transact in dollars, so you need to make sure they have some dollars flowing into their economy.

    Edit: It’s worth asking whether the US really still benefits from being the reserve currency. But, by god, that would be a sensitive transition process that I would not want this admin to tackle.