Matthew Chapman
May 30, 2025
RAW STORY
FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk stands with Republican presidential candidate former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sounded the alarm in a new interview with Rolling Stone's Lorena O'Neil published Friday about how, in her view, the Trump presidency has become a vessel for the will of tech billionaires, who are behind some of the most destructive policy initiatives against working people.
This comes at a moment when one of the most visible of these billionaires, Elon Musk, is formally exiting the White House — though perhaps not going away entirely — after installing his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force to help Trump purge the civil service.
"There is almost no area of our lives that has not been affected by this tech-billionaire class because they’re buying elections," said Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken progressive lawmaker. "The balance of the Senate has been shifted because of the crypto lobby dumping millions of dollars into right-wing authoritarian candidates. And it’s important to note that this money is not going into just issue-lobbying alone."
What makes this particularly chilling, she continued, is that crypto billionaires aren't just doing the usual lobbying and favor-seeking for their industry: "This is about crypto billionaires trying to install and support authoritarians and fascists, because they believe that if those fascists are personally close to them, then they can control far beyond the regulation of financial instruments. They think they can really start imposing this dystopian worldview that includes everything from the subjugation of women to democracy itself."
The GOP's fight to pass a "big, beautiful bill" that cuts hundreds of billions from Medicaid — something even some MAGA Republicans are uncomfortable with — is part and parcel of that, she argued.
"Elon Musk dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into trying to buy the U.S. presidential election, and he is trying to recoup that investment by getting one of the largest tax cuts for billionaires in American history — which the Republican Party is trying to pay for through massive cuts to Medicaid, for Americans with disabilities, health care for the poor," she said. "They’re trying to cut Medicaid and SNAP food assistance to pay for additional tax cuts for Elon Musk and his industries, as well. And so it’s really important for people to understand that this goes beyond tech. This is about the extreme concentration of money and power."
The scene of tech CEOs like Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg sitting close to Trump at his inauguration, she continued, is "a moment in history personified."
"This is not just people buying favors," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This is about who controls this country, and everyone else is just a formality, and that is the worldview that we are up against right now. This is the stakes of the present moment. And when Sen. Sanders and I talk about oligarchy, this really is what this is. It is beyond partisan as well. It is concentrated. It is most concentrated in the Republican Party. But it’s also the power that controls our politics writ large."
FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk stands with Republican presidential candidate former U.S. president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sounded the alarm in a new interview with Rolling Stone's Lorena O'Neil published Friday about how, in her view, the Trump presidency has become a vessel for the will of tech billionaires, who are behind some of the most destructive policy initiatives against working people.
This comes at a moment when one of the most visible of these billionaires, Elon Musk, is formally exiting the White House — though perhaps not going away entirely — after installing his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force to help Trump purge the civil service.
"There is almost no area of our lives that has not been affected by this tech-billionaire class because they’re buying elections," said Ocasio-Cortez, an outspoken progressive lawmaker. "The balance of the Senate has been shifted because of the crypto lobby dumping millions of dollars into right-wing authoritarian candidates. And it’s important to note that this money is not going into just issue-lobbying alone."
What makes this particularly chilling, she continued, is that crypto billionaires aren't just doing the usual lobbying and favor-seeking for their industry: "This is about crypto billionaires trying to install and support authoritarians and fascists, because they believe that if those fascists are personally close to them, then they can control far beyond the regulation of financial instruments. They think they can really start imposing this dystopian worldview that includes everything from the subjugation of women to democracy itself."
The GOP's fight to pass a "big, beautiful bill" that cuts hundreds of billions from Medicaid — something even some MAGA Republicans are uncomfortable with — is part and parcel of that, she argued.
"Elon Musk dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into trying to buy the U.S. presidential election, and he is trying to recoup that investment by getting one of the largest tax cuts for billionaires in American history — which the Republican Party is trying to pay for through massive cuts to Medicaid, for Americans with disabilities, health care for the poor," she said. "They’re trying to cut Medicaid and SNAP food assistance to pay for additional tax cuts for Elon Musk and his industries, as well. And so it’s really important for people to understand that this goes beyond tech. This is about the extreme concentration of money and power."
The scene of tech CEOs like Musk, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg sitting close to Trump at his inauguration, she continued, is "a moment in history personified."
"This is not just people buying favors," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This is about who controls this country, and everyone else is just a formality, and that is the worldview that we are up against right now. This is the stakes of the present moment. And when Sen. Sanders and I talk about oligarchy, this really is what this is. It is beyond partisan as well. It is concentrated. It is most concentrated in the Republican Party. But it’s also the power that controls our politics writ large."
Musk Might Be Gone, But Watchdogs Warn Trump/DOGE Carnage Will Continue
"Musk's departure obscures but does not actually change the continuity of DOGE's staff and mission to destroy everything that protects the public from the depredations of the most rapacious oligarchs," said one critic.
Demonstrators protest the Trump administration's evisceration of the federal government—spearheaded by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—during a February 5, 2025 protest on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
(Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Brett Wilkins
May 30, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Critics of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency cautioned Friday against undue elation or complacency over Elon Musk stepping down as de facto DOGE chief, warning that officials at the contentious agency are pressing ahead with U.S. President Donald Trump's mission of eviscerating key agencies and the ability of the federal government to properly function.
With Musk's official departure from DOGE this week—returning to the private sector to run his beleaguered business empire—most of the agency's leadership and rank-and-file staff remain in place. As the Revolving Door Project (RDP) noted Friday, key DOGE officials "maintain extensive ties to Musk's corporate empire, with many of them having come to DOGE directly from one of Musk's companies."
According to RDP research, "at least 46 former or current DOGE members have substantial and direct ties to Elon Musk."
"DOGE isn't going anywhere, according to the Trump administration's own officials," RDP said. The watchdog group warned specifically about Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, who they said "seems to be the new boss in town."
The visions of the two men, said RDP, "have been aligned from the start. Musk endorsed Vought's view of the unconstitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act and said that DOGE would work 'closely with [OMB].'"
Vought co-authored the policy portion of Project 2025, a far-right blueprint for gutting the government and expanding executive power.
"There is no daylight between Elon Musk and Russ Vought on the aim of greenlighting corporate abuse, as anyone can see from their joint destruction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," RDP executive director Jeff Hauser said Friday. "DOGE's Musk-tied staffers have already burrowed into the government, and having a new boss who has coordinated extensively with Musk isn't likely to change their actual actions much at all."
"Musk's departure obscures but does not actually change the continuity of DOGE's staff and mission to destroy everything that protects the public from the depredations of the most rapacious oligarchs," Hauser added.
Another watchdog, Accountable.US, noted Friday that Vought "has a nearly 20-year record working on Republican efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare—including overseeing numerous Trump budget proposals."
"It's proof that DOGE's extreme agenda, which is causing ordinary families to fall behind, is full steam ahead as Trump and his allies in Congress push forward deep cuts to Americans' essential benefits," the group continued. "Last week, congressional Republicans advanced the largest cuts to Medicaid and [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] in history, which would result in 14 million Americans losing health coverage, 3 million households without food assistance, and an increased burden for millions with higher education and energy costs. All while adding over $4 trillion to the deficit."
"Americans deserve real government reforms to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayers are able to access the services they pay for," Accountable.US added. "That was never DOGE's goal. Instead Trump and Musk tried to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, to line their own pockets and those of their billionaire friends with tax cuts, and the administration is only just getting started."
As one staffer at the DOGE-beset National Institutes of Health told Politico, "DOGE is still hungry. We've still got to feed the fucking dog."
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