Elon Musk supervises the storm of regulation: Six Avengers shake the United States

Hello everyone, welcome to “Tang Qing Looks at Current Affairs”. Today, let’s take a look at how Musk’s DOGE team, consisting of six super geniuses, has shaken Washington in just a few weeks.

Young Musk, known for creating rockets, Starlink, Boring Company, acquiring Twitter, now delves into Washington with a group of even younger tech elites, conducting audits, cutting budgets, eliminating projects, aiming to transform the entire U.S. government. It can be said that heroes emerge from the young!

Applause in the White House, uproar in Congress. Will this be a revolutionary reform?

The story begins with Trump’s new government taking office. Trump once again pulled a big move – directly inviting Musk to the White House. But he wasn’t there to freeload, but was appointed as a Special Government Employee, leading an elite tech team specifically responsible for government reform.

Why did Trump seek out Musk? The reason is simple – Washington’s bureaucratic system is too bloated. Trump has always wanted to cut redundant government spending to make the country operate more efficiently, but honestly, many previous attempts have not been very effective. So he simply sought out the person from Silicon Valley who is best at “breaking the rules” – Musk, hoping to use the mindset of a tech company to “optimize” the government.

However, Musk’s role this time is a bit special. He is not a government advisor, nor the head of a department, but a “Special Operator,” leading his own DOGE team, directly diving into major government agencies.

This “DOGE” is not an ordinary government agency. It is Trump’s designated “secret weapon” – it does not need congressional approval, nor is it bound by traditional bureaucratic procedures, reporting directly to the White House. In other words, Musk can directly manage government reform like running a company. DOGE translated into Chinese means Government Efficiency Department.

It should be noted that the annual budget of the U.S. federal government amounts to a staggering $6.2 trillion, with a large portion of funds being used inefficiently, redundantly, or even opaquely.

Musk’s DOGE plan aims to precisely cut these wasteful expenses and reallocate resources to make the government more streamlined and efficient.

Within this team are many young top engineers, the youngest being only 19 years old, already sitting in meetings at the White House. Their mission is simple – identify “unnecessary expenses” in the government and then cut them.

Let’s take a look at the six young talents in the DOGE team.

You might not believe that the “Government Reform Special Forces” brought into Washington by Musk have an average age of only 22. These individuals are not traditional bureaucrats but a group of programming prodigies, AI experts, and data analysis geniuses.

Musk’s criteria in selecting these individuals are simple: qualifications and backgrounds don’t matter; as long as they are capable and can solve problems. The result is that he has indeed assembled a group of “top talents,” each with an extraordinary resume.

1. Akash Bobba:

Elite participant in the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MET) program at UC Berkeley.

Previously interned at Meta and Palantir, specializing in AI and data analysis.

It is said that in a project where the team’s code was mistakenly deleted two days before deadline, he rewrote it all in just one night, resulting in an improved outcome, earning him first place.

2. Edward Coristine:

Originally a freshman in the engineering program at Northeastern University, but dropped out shortly after to join DOGE.

At only 19 years old, he is the youngest member of the team, having previously worked on Musk’s Neuralink project, focusing on software engineering rather than brain-machine interfaces.

3. Luke Farritor:

At 21, he was the first person worldwide to use AI to decipher a 2000-year-old Greek scroll. This study shocked the academic community, breaking through the technological bottleneck of AI in historical text analysis.

Later, he abandoned the traditional academic path to directly join Musk’s DOGE, specializing in modernizing government IT.

4. Gautier Cole Killian:

Formerly worked at Jump Trading, specializing in high-frequency trading and data analysis, proficient in financial algorithms.

Currently responsible for government IT modernization reform in DOGE, particularly focusing on data security and system optimization.

5. Gavin Kliger:

Previously worked at Databricks (a top AI data platform globally), now a special consultant at OPM (Office of Personnel Management).

Not only an AI engineer, but also operates a Substack account on X specifically focusing on sharp analyses of the “Deep State”.

6. Ethan Shaotran: Harvard AI Entrepreneur

Harvard University computer science major, also founder of AI startup company Energize AI, receiving investment support from OpenAI.

In a Musk-sponsored hackathon competition, he won second place, and was later directly recruited into DOGE.

These young individuals are not only technically skilled, but their work style is completely different from that of traditional government.

Silicon Valley’s 996? No, here it’s 007.

Musk stated on X that their work hours are 120 hours per week, nearly no weekends, no fixed schedule.

In contrast, Washington’s bureaucratic system: leaving work early on Fridays, more holidays than necessary, and even delaying budget approvals by half a year.

No wonder Musk quipped, “The DOGE team works 120 hours a week, while bureaucrats work at most 40 hours, so they lose so quickly.”

Such a work pace allowed them to breach government IT systems and identify a significant amount of redundant expenses in a short period.

These young engineers are not working in the White House but are directly assigned to critical government agencies, with high access permissions:

General Services Administration (GSA) headquarters – they have workspace here and access to government IT systems.

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – some members are designated as special consultants responsible for optimizing government personnel data.

However, despite their high access permissions, they do not have unrestricted access to government databases and still undergo certain security checks, unable to access all data freely.

Trump praised these young individuals as “geniuses,” and Musk himself confirmed on X, saying, “The reports of the world’s best software engineers in @DOGE are true.”

Clearly, Musk has full confidence in these young individuals, viewing them as the “secret weapon” for government reform.

Of course, not everyone is confident in these young individuals. Veteran Washington politicians are particularly wary:

Some question whether these individuals, lacking government experience, can understand the complexity of the federal system. With their high security clearances, could they potentially misuse data access rights? Can they really change Washington’s decades-old system with code?

Regardless of perspectives, these tech whizzes in their twenties have undoubtedly become the most talked-about team in Washington.

DOGE team has only been in Washington for less than a month, yet their swift actions have already made the entire federal government feel a “seismic impact.”

From the Department of the Treasury to the United States Agency for International Development, to federal IT systems, Musk’s team has used technological means to unveil the government’s “black box,” conducting audits, directly cutting budgets, and even causing some agencies to shut down temporarily.

Let’s now take a look at what exactly DOGE has been up to.

The first to be targeted was the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It is well known that the U.S. government spends $50 trillion annually, covering Social Security, medical assistance, defense spending, payments to government suppliers, and more. However, the transparency of this massive funding flow has always been a mystery.

So, DOGE directly intervened, gaining partial access to the Department of the Treasury’s payment system, and began conducting “financial audits.”

Subsequently, Musk disclosed on X, “The approval officials at the Department of the Treasury have never rejected any payments. Whether obvious fraudulent transactions or funds possibly flowing to terrorist organizations, they have approved all the way.”

This statement directly ignited a public opinion battlefield.

If this is true, it means that for decades, there may have been systemic corruption in the government’s payment system, with no one overseeing it. However, some experts question that the Department of the Treasury’s payment approval process is actually quite complex, and Musk’s accusation may be an exaggeration.

Yet, regardless, DOGE’s intervention has caused chaos within the Department of the Treasury. Deputy Secretary David Lebryk recently resigned, and some lawmakers even called for Congress to revoke DOGE’s access permissions.

Meanwhile, unions have begun to act, accusing DOGE of improperly accessing payment data and violating government employee privacy.

Musk’s response? “If you think the issues we found are not important, why are you so afraid of us continuing to investigate?”

My goodness, this has turned into a “audit vs counter-audit” confrontation.

If the Department of the Treasury’s investigation was severe enough, DOGE’s raid on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was nothing short of “dropping a bomb.”

USAID is the largest U.S. foreign aid agency, managing over $40 billion annually for various international aid programs. The question is, where exactly are these funds being spent? Are they truly going to where they should be?

The White House subsequently released a “waste list,” exposing the flow of funds at USAID:

– $1.5 million funding the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) program in Serbia
– $70,000 funding a DEI musical in Ireland
– $2 million funding transgender surgeries and LGBT activities in Guatemala
– $47,000 funding a “transgender opera” in Colombia

These projects were specifically criticized by the White House for supporting private ideological projects with taxpayer money, lacking proper oversight.

Therefore, DOGE took direct action. They reviewed USAID’s IT access permissions, resulting in a large number of employees being unable to log into the system, and some even being temporarily unable to enter the office building. Some employees even live-streamed themselves being “kicked out of the system” on social media.

Musk’s assessment of this was simple: “USAID is an irredeemable corrupt black hole that must be completely eradicated.” Trump also supported this action, stating, “Look at the corruption cases Musk uncovered; you’ll understand why we need to close down USAID.”

However, currently, USAID has not been completely shut down but taken over by Secretary of State Rubio, planning to undergo a comprehensive reform. The future of USAID remains uncertain.

In addition to auditing, DOGE also conducted a “major cleaning” of federal government IT systems, uncovering shocking issues.

They discovered a significant number of “ghost positions” within government systems. Some positions are ostensibly “filled” but in reality have no one working. There are even some retired officials still “alive” in the system, receiving a salary every month.

This news sent Washington’s bureaucrats into a frenzy. Some agency leaders even privately advised employees to quickly download their profiles to personal devices, fearing being deleted.

Furthermore, DOGE also attempted to gain IT access permissions from the Small Business Administration (SBA), potentially further investigating government financing approvals for small businesses.

If this investigation continues, who knows how many shocking scandals may come to light?

Another major move by DOGE was significantly reducing the government’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) program budgets.

They have already cut a $1 billion budget, targeting mostly: DEI leadership roles within the federal government; various international DEI programs; research funding for DEI at U.S. universities.

A White House spokesperson stated, “Over the past few years, the DEI programs have become a ‘black hole’ in the federal budget, with a significant amount of funds wasted on ineffective efforts.”

The Democratic Party strongly opposed this, viewing it as politicized budget cuts, but Musk’s stance is clear – taxpayer money should be spent in genuinely useful areas, not on political ideology projects.

DOGE’s actions even impacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a critical pillar in the U.S. scientific research system, responsible for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and natural disaster prediction.

Entering NOAA’s IT system, the DOGE team audited internal DEI-related projects. Simultaneously, multiple scientific data websites suddenly went offline, including the global carbon dioxide monitoring database.

NOAA officially explained this as “routine maintenance”. Democratic Party lawmakers criticized this, saying, “This is not ‘maintenance,’ it is DOGE deliberately disrupting the environmental monitoring system.”

Musk’s response was, “Of course, data must be maintained, but what if certain data is artificially manipulated?”

In just a few weeks, DOGE has swiftly shaken Washington, from the Department of the Treasury’s payment system, to USAID’s shutdown, and to the comprehensive audit of government IT systems. This unprecedented reform pace has set Washington abuzz.

On January 31, the U.S. Department of Defense announced an “annual media rotation plan,” directly requesting The New York Times, NBC News, NPR, and Politico to vacate offices they have long occupied.

In their place, conservative media outlets such as The New York Post, Breitbart News, and OAN (One America News).

The Department of Defense’s official explanation was to provide more news outlets the opportunity to access Pentagon news resources, rather than having a few media outlets dominate for a long time.

However, mainstream media outlets do not buy this explanation. They immediately criticized this as not a “rotation” but a purge of dissenters, claiming the White House is rudely intervening in press freedom.

The Trump administration’s attitude? Quite direct – they have always viewed these left-wing media outlets as “political propaganda tools,” while conservative media has long been marginalized, and now they are just “rebalancing.”

As this “major media reshuffling” took place, Musk and some right-wing journalists exposed certain mainstream media outlets for receiving significant funds from the government, with Politico receiving an $8 million subsidy.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt announced at a press conference, “The DOGE team is canceling all payments to Politico. The practice of using taxpayer money to subsidize the news media will no longer exist.”

The reduction of these funds may affect Politico’s operations. Some media outlets revealed that some Politico employees even experienced delays in receiving their salaries, initially thinking it was a bank system issue until they saw the White House’s statement, realizing it might be related to the government funding cuts.

Musk himself also stated on X, “Many media outlets are about to experience mysterious revenue downturns.”

Politico is not the only “government-subsidized media outlet.” The Associated Press was also found to receive millions of dollars in government funds annually. Independent journalist Kyle Becker exposed this, and Musk retweeted it. The Associated Press later stated that the funds paid by the U.S. government were for acquiring the licensing of the Associated Press.

The New York Times was also scrutinized. Musk shared a disclosure by right-wing journalist Ian Miles Cheong, revealing that the U.S. government had provided the New York Times with significant funding over the past five years. The New York Times later denied receiving subsidies from the government, with the funds strictly for subscribing to the Times’ news service.

On February 6, Trump tweeted on social media:

“It appears that USAID and other agencies have embezzled tens of billions of dollars, much of it flowing to fake news media as their rewards for creating good stories for the Democratic Party. Left-wing rag Politico seems to have received $8 million. Did The New York Times get paid? Who else? This could be the biggest scandal in history.”

Musk’s reform efforts have been blazing forward, and Washington’s reactions are starting to show.

In the eyes of supporters, Musk is the superhero who has come to save the U.S. government.

What’s more interesting is that some Republicans have already begun discussing the “possibility of Musk running for president in 2028.” Although he currently cannot legally run as he is not a native-born American, this illustrates his influence among conservative voters.

However, Washington’s Democrats do not see it that way. In their view, Musk is essentially an “unelected dictator.”

Senate Democratic Leader Schumer described him directly as an “unelected shadow government.”

Democratic Party leadership is preparing to use its budget voting power and even considering suing DOGE in court to restrict their permissions.

Some Democratic lawmakers have protested, demanding a halt to the reorganization of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

And what about Trump’s stance?

In a recent interview, he stated, “Musk is doing a great job. Look at the fraudulent cases he discovered in USAID; it’s a disaster.”

Trump emphasized that Musk will not do anything unauthorized.

The upheaval caused by Musk and his six genius engineers is shaking Washington to its core. Will the Democratic Party resort to more aggressive means to stop DOGE? Can the Republican Party ensure the reform continues to progress? Will Musk emerge unscathed from this political confrontation?

All of this is worth continued attention. Let’s watch and see.

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