Who Is Elon Musk?

My VIP for this week is the richest man in the world and industrialist Elon Musk who has been helping to cut expenses in the federal government and working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Musk signed up as a special government employee – unpaid – for a definite period of time of 130 days. According to George Caldwell at The Daily Signal, Musk came to the end of his “contract,” and President Donald Trump bade him farewell in an Oval Office ceremony on Friday. 

Caldwell quoted Trump as saying, “Elon has worked tirelessly, helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations.” Trump added, “The numbers that we’re talking about are substantial, but they’re going to be very much more substantial with time…. The numbers could double and triple.”

Even though Musk is leaving, DOGE will continue. Trump said that Congress and the White House will work together to update the computer systems of the federal government. He added that Congress will formally codify DOGE’s spending cuts into law. Caldwell wrote:

The White House has not yet formally sent Congress a rescissions package to do so, which would allow for the cancellation of discretionary spending through a simple majority vote in both houses.

“We’re totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent. … Most of it’s going to come later. We’re going to have it [codified] by Congress,” Trump said.

Codifying all the DOGE work will stop future President’s from changing the goals of DOGE. According to Caldwell, Musk thanked Trump for supporting the DOGE effort throughout the time that Musk worked in government. He also stated that the work of DOGE would continue.

“This is not the end of DOGE,” he said. “The DOGE influence will only grow stronger … I’m confident that over time, we’ll see … $1 trillion of waste and fraud reduction.” Asked what he expected his future relationship with Trump would be, Musk told reporters that he expected to remain in communication with the president.

“I expect to continue to provide advice, whatever the president would like,” Musk said. Trump quipped in response, “I hope so!”

Musk concluded, “I expect to remain a friend and an adviser, and certainly if there’s anything the president wants me to do, I’m at the president’s service.”

Who Is Elon Musk?

My VIP for this week is Elon Musk. He is a man who is rescuing the United States from bankruptcy just as his SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule brought Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore safely back to earth this week.

Musk offered to bring the astronauts home during the Biden administration, but former President Joe Biden was too embarrassed to have a supporter of Donald Trump do it. Instead, Biden chose to leave Williams and Wilmore in space for more than nine months. Musk was happy to bring them home when President Donald Trump posed the request. Jackie Wattles and Ashley Strickland reported the following at CNN. 

Williams and Wilmore, alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, safely splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The crew’s highly anticipated return came after the crew climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday.

The quartet are part of the Crew-9 mission, a routine staff rotation jointly operated by NASA and SpaceX. The Crew-9 capsule launched to the space station in September with Hague and Gorbunov riding alongside two empty seats reserved for Willias and Wilmore, who had been on the orbiting laboratory since last June, when their original ride – a Boeing Starliner spacecraft – malfunctioned.

Safely reaching Earth concluded a trip that, for Williams and Wilmore, has garnered broad interest because of the unexpected nature of their extended stay in orbit and the dramatic turn of events that prevented them from returning home aboard the Boeing Starliner vehicle.

“Welcome home to the Crew-9 astronauts – NASA’s Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Your dedication and unwavering commitment to space exploration inspires us all,” Boeing Space shared on social platform X after the crew returned home.

Musk is a brilliant man who created the company capable of bringing astronauts safely home. He also has a proven record for being able to cut business expenses. He cut approximately 80 percent of the workforce at Twitter from about 7500 to about 1500 employees. Naysayers said that Musk would destroy Twitter, but he renamed it X and has a successful company. 

The government of the United States is nothing but a big business, one that needs to cut employees and expenses to prevent bankruptcy. Therefore, it is good that our President is a businessman and has appointed Musk to locate places to cut.

 

Why Are Democrats So Angry About Cutting Government Costs?

Democrats are making fools of themselves as they throw their temper tantrums about the cuts in spending that Elon Musk and his Musk-eteers are suggesting. They claim that Musk is unelected as though he is the only “unelected” federal employee. Anyone who knows much at all about the federal government knows that there are many “appointed” employees.

The fact is that President Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump supervises Musk, meaning that Musk reports to Trump, and Trump tells Musk which agency to audit. Victor Davis Hanson explained Musk’s role in the Trump administration: 

There’s a lot of controversy about Elon Musk, and let’s just dispel some of it right at the start. He is not a freelancer. He was appointed a government official. Donald Trump, by an executive order, created the Department of Government Efficiency, and he made Elon Musk the head of it…..

Elon Musk has statutory authority. This Department of Government Efficiency is not a Cabinet agency. He does not have to be approved by Congress. And it only is going to last until July 4, 2026. It’s not a permanent agency, but he has the same power, or lack of such, as the national security adviser, who does not have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate….

As far as the executive orders that created the DOGE program and eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID] – that was perfectly legal in itself. USAID was created by John F. Kennedy in 1961 by an executive order. There was a statutory direction for the president to disperse foreign aid into a comprehensive body, but it didn’t say USAID – he could do whatever he wanted.

And so, Donald Trump has decided to end autonomous USAID [by an executive order] and fold it into the State Department for disaster relief or poverty relief or famine relief.

But let’s get straight what Elon Musk is trying to do. He’s going through all of these agencies and finding waste and fraud. And he has executive authority to do so. The Democrats are suing on the principle that they have approved funds for some of these agencies and Donald Trump is not spending them. And they are also arguing that Elon must exist by an executive order and not a congressional statute….

As far as impounding funds, Joe Biden set the precedent. You all saw him on tape when he said, “SOB – the son of a ___ I went in, over there, to Ukraine and I said, ‘You’re not getting this billion dollars until you do this.’” Well, that money had been approved by Congress.

And when he became president, there was a statute that said, “Here’s the money to build the wall.”

And Joe Biden canceled the wall. That was illegal. But he came up with all these – “Oh, we have to do environmental studies, or on endangered species.” But he didn’t spend the money….

And so, again, there is a statutory authority for Elon Musk to do what he does. He has the executive order justifying his agency, his 20-some employees. And more importantly – there’s another thing no one talks about – Elon Musk is a controversial figure and everybody is attacking him. And whom are they not attacking? Donald Trump….

What Is the Best Way to End Federal Overspending?

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help “end federal overspending” by cutting unauthorized expenditures or in unauthorized ways. Soon after Trump’s announcement, a coalition of Republican lawmakers began making plans. According to Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell at The Daily Signal, the coalition acted the day after the appointments of Musk and Ramaswamy. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, House Pro-Life Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith, Rep. Robert Aderholt, and Rep. Claudia Tenney led a bicameral letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office requesting a report on federal funding for abortion providers between fiscal year 2022 and 2024….

Smith said he hopes the requested report will help Musk and Ramaswamy defund Planned Parenthood….

The coalition of 112 Congress members requests reports on the federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates, International Planned Parenthood Federation, MSI Reproductive Choices, federally qualified health centers, and four domestic abortion providers, according to the letter shared with The Daily Signal.

“It is our hope that this report will provide greater insight as Congress considers funding levels and provides increased transparency and openness for our constituencies and the general public,” says the letter signed by 81 House members and 31 senators.

The Government Accountability Office has responded to several congressional requests with prepared reports on federal funding for abortion organizations. The most recent report revealed that the abortion industry had received almost $2 billion in federal taxpayer dollars between fiscal years 2019-2021.

The letter asks for the report to detail Planned Parenthood’s federal obligations, disbursements, and the expenditures of federal funds by each of the organizations; reported obligations, disbursements, and expenditures by program from federal agencies other than the Department of Health and Human Services; the funding sources for federal agencies and programs associated with these federal funds; how these funds were made available; and reported obligations, disbursements, and expenditures for the top 15 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services programs.

This week, an announcement was made that the national debt passed $36 trillion. One way to decrease the spending of the government is to reign in the authorized spending. Musk and Ramaswamy should have prime pickings as they look for ways that the government wastes money.

Who Is Elon Musk?

            My VIP for this week is Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the person who owns the largest block – 9.2% - of Twitter stock. He was at first a passive interest owner but soon changed to an active interest owner. He is now on the board of directors for the social media giant. Douglas Blair at The Heritage Foundation asked this question: “what does all of this really mean?”

            Blair turned to Annie Butler, a research associate at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology Policy for an answer. She concluded that Musk’s taking an active interest at the company is a step towards more free speech at Twitter. In a podcast with Blair asked Butler what this information about Musk mean for Twitter, and she replied with the following: 

So, we don’t actually know specifically what’s going on inside his head, but we can only hope that this means really good things for free speech, bringing the platform closer to working along the sides of the First Amendment, and just actually acting on being the de facto public town square.

In his tweet, which was, I think, March 25^th – this is the one that we are really interested to see if [it] actually comes true and he holds Twitter to – he said, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to the principle?” And it was a poll to the public. And his Twitter followers, 70.4% said no….

So to him, he followed that up the next day and tweeted out, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? And he left it open-ended to his followers.

So obviously, now we know that he had, at the time, purchased that amount of shares of the company. So we’re hoping to see those ideas of holding Twitter to the account of actually being a public town square and operating along the lines of the First Amendment, we hope that he actually can get that done.

            Musk is a successful businessman and the richest man in the world. We can be sure that he did some deep thinking before he purchased 9.2 percent of Twitter. We know that he has a plan, but he has not shared his plan yet. We can only hope that Twitter makes more effort for free speech.