The First Day of the Cold War: Elon Musk Tells the World Why U.S.A.I.D. is Hateful

The United States agency for international development, known as U.S.A.I.D., is the first casualty. He has called it a “radical-left political psy op,” a “criminal organization” and a “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.” On Monday, shortly before 2 a.m., he bragged that he and his allies had spent the weekend “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” Musk hates an agency because of undisclosed reasons, and he also thinks cutting government spending is the only way to reduce inflation.

The demonstration encapsulated a feeling in Washington that Musk’s access to sensitive government datamarks a tipping point for the business world, as he spent 25 bucks to win Trump’s presidency and his own job. There is a sense that people in power don’t do enough to help and many Americans haven’t noticed.

Even if anyone had elected Elon Musk to anything, the past week would still be one of the most serious examples of executive branch malfeasance in American history.

The Treasury Rally: The Big Bad Thing About the Republican-Government Correspondence in the House, Senate and House. Tomorrow’s rally is a Pain in the Ass

The crowd quickly dispersed once the remarks concluded. The doors to the Treasury building remained closed to lawmakers. It was not clear who was listening beyond the doors.

One rally-goer asked where the leader of the party was, but they did not give their name. “There are people that you cannot cooperate with, and it’s time to recognize that. So it’s time to mount a real opposition to what looks like a hostile takeover of the US government.”

The comment was somewhat surprising from a lawmaker who’s been known to critique her own party for inaction. But on a livestream on Tuesday, she assured constituents that they’d be likely to see more action from Democrats now that House members have returned from their districts to Washington and advocated that the Senate block all of Trump’s nominees. “We need to be a pain in the ass,” she said.

Democratic lawmakers have declared that their tools are limited. Without a majority in either chamber they can’t stop the actions that Republicans seem to be in agreement with. Some hope to take advantage of Republicans’ slim edge in congress, stalling operations with procedural maneuvers or denying Republicans a winning vote. Democrats can and must try to slow, obstruct, etc, but GOP hold both House and Senate majorities severely limiting our options.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, says in a statement that “Trump’s attempts to withhold funds that have already been approved are flatly unconstitutional. Donald Trump has a duty to follow the law, and it’s an appropriations bill. I’m sure we can force them to follow the law, but if they still don’t know how to read the constitution, I would encourage them to do so.

The whole ball game is what is happening right now, according to someone who was at Tuesday’s rally. How can we stop them from doing things like this if they don’t have accountability? I don’t think people outside of DC get a good sense of how big a deal this is.”

The Treasury rally was well attended, but the OPM event earlier that day was much sparser. The day before, it drew roughly 100 people, but doubled that number today. Attendees were similarly enthusiastic, singing and sharing stories about the impact of Musk’s takeover, and passing cars during the morning rush hour honked in solidarity. Nadine was pessimistic about the rally. “We could only amass 50 people to show up with this person accessing hundreds and hundreds of millions of people’s personal information,“ Seiler told The Verge. She was concerned that the American people don’t care about change, and she didn’t want to be a revolution.

The crowd in front of Sen. Chris Van Hollen was packed, and the senator claimed that the theft was the biggest in American history. The vibe was energetic. Some signs called for Musk’s arrest, and at one point, protesters began an impromptu chant of “lock him up.”

In just the last few days, Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a new temporary organization Trump created out of the United States Digital Service and appointed Musk to lead — have consolidated power and targeted a growing list of federal departments. He’s taken it upon himself to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and reportedly locked out civil servants at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from their own computer systems. Van Hollen claims that taking over the government is to advance the interests of Musk and billionaires at the expense of everyone else.

is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.