John Heilemann: ‘Unelected Plutocrat [Elon Musk] and His Group of Toadies … Are Staging a Digital Coup’

EXCERPT:

HEILEMANN: “The DOGE is acting in a lawless way to go target given programs of all kinds in kind of the dead of night, over weekends, accessing computer systems, and making determinations that Congress hasn’t voted on, that no one has authorized, that no one has debated beforehand, that all these — that argument that Democrats are now starting to glom onto, which is, this is a usurpation of the democratic process. This is breaking the government. This is a coup in all but without the Kalashnikovs. Those kinds of arguments to fold USAID under that blanket, under that larger argument and sort of say, 'Wait, wait! Stop! What’s going on here? Who gave you, Elon Musk, the right to shut down anything? You are elected and you are unconfirmed. You are unvetted. What is — where does your authority derive?' I think Democrats are starting to see that as a powerful political argument. Rather than fighting program by program, you need to fight this larger fight and you need to fight it right now."