back to article Musk’s DOGE ship gets ‘full’ access to Treasury payment system, sinks USAID

The chaos in Washington DC continued over the weekend and into Monday with government workers locked out of their offices and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) getting unfettered access to classified materials and a top government payment system. The upheaval of the US federal government under President …

  1. beast666 Bronze badge

    After just 2 weeks, historians are now saying President Trump will go down as the GREATEST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY if all these successes keep up.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      OK

      You got greedy, now we know you're just trolling. You don't actually mean anything you say.

      C.

      1. beast666 Bronze badge

        Re: OK

        Cope harder. We and many others feel exactly this way. Thanks.

        1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

          "Cope harder"

          That all you got? Sad.

          C.

        2. IGotOut Silver badge

          Re: OK

          @"beast"666

          You want to be careful, otherwise you may find a Ukrainian drone popping into you appartment lobby to say hi.

          By appartement, I mean mummies house.

          1. BartyFartsLast Silver badge

            Re: OK

            Mummy's basement surely?

            1. Casca Silver badge

              Re: OK

              They cant afford a basement

        3. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Re: OK

          No-one sane thinks that. In fact, quite the opposite has been mentioned many times.

          These youngsters who raided USAID on Saturday night have been warned they face prison time. As we know from history, "just following orders" is not a viable defence.

          P.s. Welcome to my killfile

          1. Derezed

            Re: OK

            If the president can pardon literal insurrectionists he can pardon some snotty oiks out of grade school.

            1. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

              Re: OK

              And he himself already being pardoned by SCOTUS. Other than the Hamburgler taking him to the great KFC bucket (I'd like to say in the sky but that obviously isn't right) this can't end well

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: OK

                It's as right as any religion, why not have a heaven which is a giant family bucket of fried chicken in the sky.

                1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

                  Re: OK

                  There's no reason why not at all, just that some people aren't going there, they're going to the same place as Hitler when they die.

                  1. BartyFartsLast Silver badge

                    Re: OK

                    Into the ground to rot and be biodegraded in their component atoms.

                    1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

                      Re: OK

                      Well, I think technically, most of one of those people supposedly ended up in a pyre at the wrong end of a Soviet flamethrower, so there wasn't a great deal left to rot, but yes.

            2. Jamie Jones Silver badge
              Thumb Up

              Re: OK

              True, but we still shouldn't give up on the law. Hopefully, the wannabe dictator will be out soon.

            3. fajensen

              Re: OK

              That’s why you have security shoot them in the face. Shut down the first coup attempt pretty fast too.

          2. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

            Re: OK

            We have an"ignore" option here?

            1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

              Re: OK

              I've written one for use with the "scriptmonkey" / "tampermonkey" extension, but before completing testing of it last week, my computer monitor died, so it will be a few more days before I can post it.

              I'll keep this topic updated with information: https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2025/02/04/Jamie_Jones_killfile_script_for_blocking_forum_users/

        4. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

          Re: OK

          Many others felt that way about the corrupt corporatism, marginalisation of minorities, and demonisation of opposing political opinions in 1930s Germany as well. To those that are utterly ignorant of history, the parallels are not apparent, to everyone else, we are deeply concerned about where the US is going, and very rapidly.

          1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

            Re: OK

            The brainwashing of Americans and unfortunately other western countries who consume American media has been true for a long time.

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: OK

        I happen to agree with what he said, whether or not you believe it to be trolling. I am pretty sure a huge number of US'ians do as well.

        "Move fast and break things" - it's how the swamp will get DRAINED.

        You should check out the kinds of payments USAID was ACTUALLY MAKING. Lots of activity on X regarding this.

        I have a strong suspicion that Musk is having more fun finding waste fraud and abuse, and would rather do THAT than scheme up some of his own. Advantage of 2 very wealthy people doing this like Trunp and Musk, ia that they really do not need the money, so what motivation is there to SCAM for it???

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: OK

          considering both their incomes are generated by fraud. and they are greedy fuckers.

          of course they are already filling their boots with unearned scam money.

          orange turd is basically advertising the multiple ways people can bribe him.

          So fuck off with "they are too rich to scam people", thats all they do!.

        2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Re: OK

          Trump and Musk are the swamp.

          You are 64 now, Bob. Say goodbye to your pension and medicare.

        3. Jedit Silver badge
          FAIL

          "they really do not need the money"

          Bob, Bob, Bob ... we know they don't need the money. That doesn't mean they don't want the money.

          No billionaire has ever said "OK, I have enough". If they did they wouldn't be billionaires, let alone multi-billionaires.

          1. JLV Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Re: "they really do not need the money"

            Come on, stop with this slander. It's not as if either of the two are in any way shape or form remotely been involved with cryptocurrencies.

            Oh, wait...

        4. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: OK

          "Lots of activity on X"

          Oh, okay then...

          It really is laughable, but also deeply saddening that some people are so easily taken in.

          Let me spell this out for you in small words that you can understand, sorry, "get", easily:

          "X" is owned by Elon Musk.

          Elon Musk is acting very much like a Nazi.

          Elon Musk is a buddy of Trump (for now).

          What is found on "X" is not fact.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Black Helicopters

            Re: OK

            War Thunder forums, on the other hand...

        5. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

          Re: OK

          "Advantage of 2 very wealthy people doing this like Trunp [sic] and Musk, ia [sic] that they really do not need the money,"

          The notable thing about billionaires, is that nobody needs to be a billionaire. A couple of million is easily enough to live comfortably on for a fair amount of time.

          They don't need the amount of money they already have, it's pretty apparent that they could have stopped at the "don't need any more" a long time ago, there's absolutely no indication that they are going to stop.

          This holds true for absolutely every billionaire on the planet. This is as good an argument as any for widespread changes to prevent billionaires; they are a disease upon humanity, because their wealth-hoarding strangulates economies and literally causes others to go with not enough, and die.

        6. heyrick Silver badge

          Re: OK

          "Lots of activity on X regarding this."

          An echo chamber of delusional nutters is not what I'd point to in order to back up a point. How about some actual reputable journalists with editorial standards to uphold (by that I mean "not Fox News")?

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            Re: OK

            Facts? Where we're going, we don't need facts!

            (With apologies to the Bobs, Zemeckis and Gale)

        7. Someone Else Silver badge

          Re: OK

          Lots of activity on X regarding this.

          The intersection of anything on X and verifiable facts is a very null set.

          Ooops...sorry BB. Forgot that something like references to set theory would be beyond your limited comprehension. I'll try not to let it happen again but not very hard...

        8. This post has been deleted by its author

        9. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: OK

          "Move fast and break things"

          Mmmmm...yes, it will be interesting how much of the fallout financially affects his own base.

          " - it's how the swamp will get DRAINED."

          WTF? You still believe that? He had FOUR WHOLE YEARS and didn't even make an attempt at it last time. This time, all he's doing is taking out one lot of denizens and putting in his own where he can. There's no "draining" happening at all. Just a quick change of water and more shit going in to change the mixture a bit.

    2. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      FAIL

      If you aim a shotgun at your left foot and pull the trigger, and then aim it at your right foot and pull the trigger, it is true that you have just had a great deal of success in shooting off both of your feet. But you have also shot off both of your feet.

      1. fajensen

        But … It did fix that ingrown toe nail you were complaining about.

    3. Potemkine! Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      Best joke of the day, thank you!

    4. Casca Silver badge

      I want your drugs. The seem reality altering

    5. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

      I can't decide if that comment is sardonic or delusional.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge

        Sarlusional?

    6. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

      The US. So successful nobody can even buy eggs anymore.

      Egg wokes.

    7. Roland6 Silver badge

      > President Trump will go down as the GREATEST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY

      The first president to win a Darwin Award?

      The nice thing about being in the UK is that we have a good idea how this will play out; the Lettuce and co were very into the republicans MAGA, hence used their opportunity to trial it in the UK, the rest is history as they say…

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Sadly, I think Trumps tenure will outlive even a steroid injected genetically modified lettuce farmed in the USA.

    8. heyrick Silver badge

      "Trump will go down as the GREATEST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY"

      That you seem to believe that enough to want to shout it is quite astonishing. Trump is absolutely nowhere near the calibre of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, to have to put such a completely morally empty grifter into the same category as a man like Lincoln (by virtue of being a President) is deeply unsettling.

      1. ChrisC Silver badge

        "Trump is absolutely nowhere near the calibre of Abraham Lincoln."

        He's not even close to being comparable to the likes of Dubya, or any of the previous residents of the White House who've historically been considered somewhat underwhelming.

      2. LucreLout

        Trump is absolutely nowhere near the calibre of Abraham Lincoln

        While I agree with you (Who wouldn't?!), it is worth remembering that Lincoln's greatness comes in the main from the fact that he won. Had he lost, history would have looked very different, as would his reputation, regardless of the calibre of the man.

        Whatever we might think about it on our side of the pond, Trump is doing what he said he'd do, what he was elected to do. Whatever colour rosette you wear, our government cannot hope to make such a claim.

    9. Someone Else Silver badge

      What "historians" are those? The self-acclaimed ones from Newsmax?

    10. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Certainly he'll go down as the biggest Russian plant in history.

    11. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      you’re as dimwitted as he is then

      Maybe your MAGA hat is on too tight?

    12. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Did your life quality just double ?

      Are you getting free medical, double the holidays everyone else in the world gets, working 20 hour weeks ?

  2. Jim Mitchell
    Mushroom

    The Republicans have long talked about drowning the federal government in the bathtub and it appears that they might succeed.

    1. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

      All the while blaming Democrats.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        re: All the while blaming Democrats

        Yep.

        It won't be long before MTG starts showing files supposedly from Hunter's Laptop and/or Hillary's email server.

        WMD's in action folks.

        Weapons of Mass Distraction.

        1. Someone Else Silver badge

          Re: re: All the while blaming Democrats

          It won't be long before MTG starts showing files supposedly from Hunter's Laptop and/or Hillary's email server.

          Nah. Won't happen. MTG is way to stupid to be able to forge such things herself, and gien the caliber of the sick-ophants she surrounds herself with, there is not enough intellectual capability there among the bunch to do it, either. And that includes running DALL-E.

          ...and getting someone in Hollywood to doll-up something for her? Not fucking likely.

      2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Didn't Democrats simply abandon working class? That's always what happens afterwards. History repeats itself.

        1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

          While as far from a Trumper as you can get, the disenfranchised working class _are_ a big reason why populism seems to be catching on. But I'd say more the political class in general abandoned the working class in favour of the usual corporate love-in. If you recall everyone in the RNC thought of him as a joke candidate until he suddenly wasn't.

          That being said, the second time around, AFTER capitol hill was barely visible through a fog of teargas? A lot of that was down to the sterling effort of Biden to torpedo his party's chances.

          Here we are, with western democracies treating politics like football, supporting their team no matter their policies or performance, everyone loses.

          The fortunes of the US and abroad will only turn around when the people learn the basic rules of the prisoner's dilemma, but there is far more mileage in this mutual self destruction left.

        2. Jamie Jones Silver badge
          Thumb Up

          Yes, pretty much.

          When both parties are controlled by lobbyists and corporate ambitions, then someone shouting "I'LL GIVE YOU CHANGE" is very compelling.

          Unfortunately, the fact that the change will be far worse doesn't seem to cross their mind. And you're right, it's social unrest like this throughout history that has allowed the fascists to exploit the gullable and get into power.

          Jonathan Pie put it brilliantly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3XO_ee9VeY

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            The GOP end goal is to undo all the government changes done by FDR or later administrations. The working people might not realize this, but its true.

            The democrats might also have close ties with corporations, but they are not the same.

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              You might need to go back further. Like maybe the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act signed off by President Harrison (R)

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Happy

      Hmmm, sounds like a good idea, for anything beyond that which is specified in the US Constitution

    3. ChrisElvidge Silver badge

      Couldn't they drown it/tem in the swamp?

  3. mostly average
    Facepalm

    The data was leaked long ago

    Regardless of how secure musk's cyber posture is, OPM already was breached not terribly long while ago. I don't think there's that many new SSNs and pay stubs to expose since last time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The data was leaked long ago

      Probably not, but it's cheaper to just take this trove of viable kompromat directly than cough up for it over a tor connection, surely?

  4. cornetman Silver badge

    I'm honestly not sure what to think about this.

    The US federal government has become a sprawling juggernaut that could rival the EU for the sheer amount of money that is laundered through it, far from the original American ideal of a union of loosely coupled states brought together by a small, nimble federal organisation to represent their common interests. Most Americans' experience of how bad things have gotten is through the gestapo department known as the IRS, an out-of-control body that is a law unto itself.

    The *only* way to wrestle control of such an organisation involves extreme measures. Anything else leads to the status quo. The trick is to not throw crucial babies out with the sewage that they were previously being washed in. I do worry about what is going on but I hope for something positive to come from it.

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      No. Those are the sort of excuses that Trump and Elon use - they did the public into thinking why change it for, but there clearly not the case.

      Sure, there is massive bloat and inefficiencies, but how does sending inexperienced youngsters to usaid on a Saturday night to pull all confidential files and raid the offices help that?

      It's more like a tyrannical takeover - it's certainly against US law, and now Musk has inside information on his corporate competitors, and personal information on millions of social and Medicaid recipients.

      He s a liability, and a security risk.

      https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases/us-rep-betty-mccollum-statement-elon-musks-illegal-and-unconstitutional-raid

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Yeah, first commentard on Tom's Trump scrub TFA links right to TechDirt calling Musk's Doggy Kristallnacht for what it is: a straight-up Cyberattack ... they got a point!

        1. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
          Coat

          Oh, they came in in Cybertrucks?

          1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            The ideal vehicle if your plan is to burn down Government :-/

      2. Ian Johnston Silver badge

        it's certainly against US law

        Perhaps, but does "against the law" have any meaning at all when the president stands ready to pardon anybody convicted and to sack anyone involved in the convictions?

        1. Handlebars

          Pardons all round? Sorry, thought you meant the last president for a moment.

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            Would that be the last President who issued a bunch of pre-emptive pardons as a protection against vendettas? It actually seems remarkably prescient from someone with obvious age-related cognitive decline.

            Perhaps it's time for the US to think about not putting a very old white* man in charge? Ah, that's a nope then.

            *Underneath the orange paint anyway.

          2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

            Did you miss the fact that Trump pardoned 1500 Jan 6thers including people who beat up cops, rapists, and perpetrators of domestic abuse?

            How the hell can you justify that?

            Party of law and order indeed(!)

        2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

          Perhaps, but does "against the law" have any meaning at all when the president stands ready to pardon anybody convicted and to sack anyone involved in the convictions?

          Yeah, that's a fair point. I'm naively hoping it won't matter long term when the post Trump trials start.

      3. Jedit Silver badge
        Flame

        "now Musk has inside information"

        It's worse than that. Musk is reportedly destroying the databases behind him. So not only does he have the information, the government does not. And since he has full control of the Treasury apparatus, nobody gets paid anything without his say-so.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If our founders had wanted "a union of loosely coupled states" they would have kept the Articles of Confederation instead of the later Constitution. The Constitution which some interpret as allowing a monarchy.

      1. Baird34

        The king is dead, long live the king!

        1. 42656e4d203239 Silver badge

          >>The king is dead, long live the king!

          Perhaps, more appropriately, considering who says it in the original text and who is El Presidente, "Two legs good, Four legs Bad!"

        2. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

          The king is dead, long live the king!

          And don't forget his court appointed jester.

      2. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

        They tried that for a while until the problems with it became totally obvious. Each state printed its own money and depending on various reasons would or would not honor the money from other states. This made traveling between states and interstate commerce very difficult. Each state would or would not have extradition treaties with other states which meant that one could commit crimes in one state and live comfortably in another. Actually I'm not sure if any of the states had extradition treaties with the others. Those are two off the top of my head I'm sure there are more.

        1. EarthDog

          and it wouldn't have been long before states started inviting in foreign powers to help them settle disputes with other states. The 40 years war and English Civil war were recent history to many of the people who wrote the constitution.

          1. SundogUK Silver badge

            The English civil war pre-dates the writing of the constitution by about 150 years, so that's a bit of a stretch.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              'cept they were properly educated and 150 years is a weekend compared to the full European history they all came from.

            2. that one in the corner Silver badge

              Hmm, if one was 18 in 1960, you'd be 82 now. Plenty of 82 year olds around with active minds and willing to tell you about how things used to be.

              If in 1960 an astute[1] 18 year old was to spend time talking to 82 year olds, they'd be getting the scoop from a (young) adult's life in, ooh, let's see, 1896.

              So an astute 18 year old now could be learning of how things felt[1] in 1896 in a conversation just one step removed from "I know, because I was there". 128 years and without attempting to pull in any outrageous numbers. When you are a Rising Young Man and go to talk to the really old buffers sitting by the fire down the club.

              "Before I wasn an astute 18 year old, as I was growing up back in 1890, all anyone ever talked about at the dinner table was the start of the Johnson County War and Uncle Buck losing his land to the damn homesteaders" [3]

              And considering that things like Civil Wars tend to leave scars that are easily visible for a long time after, physically and in societal changes, looking around and realising (if you happen to be astute) "ah, yes, that is the unpleasant result of what we were holding discourse upon last evening".

              [1] The sort of chap who was thinking of Making a Name for Himself

              [2] Yes, felt. "What was it like back then, how did you feel compared to..."; the dates and times you can get from the books

              [3] I know this all seems unbelievable, but back before there were screens, people used to spend a lot of time in the evenings just talking to each other, even across generations. Or so I'm told by my grandparents.

              1. Caver_Dave Silver badge
                Boffin

                Quite Interesting fact

                Irene Triplett was the last person to receive an American Civil War pension and she died in 2020!

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Quite Interesting fact

                  I hope DOGE can clawback the $877.56 a year the government frittered away on her.

                  Perhaps the elonites can seize the nursing home she died in and transfer it to a proper private developer who can use it efficiently. That'd show her.

      3. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

        There's a reason that many nations have both a President and a First Minister (or equivalent). Concentrating too much power in one individual leads to tyranny.

        Sure, it might lead to constitutional "difficulties" where a head of state and legislative leader have opposing political opinions, but I'd take argument and inefficiency over dictatorship, and the inevitable mass murders any day. Trump hasn't started openly killing anyone yet, but then most Germans didn't know about the death camps in the 1930s and 1940s until it was too late. The threat here is no exaggeration.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          > Trump hasn't started openly killing anyone yet

          El Salvador has made him an offer he might not refuse - throwing open their concentration camp prisons for a fee.

          It will warm patriotic hearts seeing enemies of America's reich and undesirables put on trains to never be seen again.

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            It's actually probably frighteningly close to the truth. Look to who is demonised the most, to see where the pogroms will start.

            - Immigrants (undocumented)

            - Trans people

            - Other LGBTQ+ people

            - Immigrants (documented)

            - Political opponents

            - Anyone who isn't white

            - Women

            In that order, probably. Possibly, in some states, women will be much closer to the top of the list. Removal of reproductive healthcare already puts lives at risk in several states.

          2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            "It will warm patriotic hearts seeing enemies of America's reich and undesirables put on trains to never be seen again."

            IIRC, Trump has already publicly mused on that subject.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Real facists made the trains run on time. Seems unlikely there will be running trains left when this lot get going.

        2. decentralised

          "Trump hasn't started openly killing anyone yet, but then most Germans didn't know about the death camps in the 1930s and 1940s until it was too late. The threat here is no exaggeration."

          Give him time. He will. Probably when the impossible logistics of deportation become obvious. He's vindictive, vengeful and malicious, he enjoys vicarious cruelty.

          The worst part; Germany was not the world hegemon. This time round will be far worse.

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            The dangerous thing about comparison to the Nazis isn't that it's inaccurate (it's far too accurate in this case), it's that we have encapsulated Nazism into some sort of bubble of aberrant behaviour. "Things the Nazis did," as if nobody else ever did any of those things.

            The scary bit about this, is that genocides, for instance, have been common throughout history. Look at pretty much any ancient civilisation, right up to the Romans, and violent death was common. The important thing of note here is that it has become steadily less prevalent over time, until we have (almost) reached a point where people killing each other is not a norm any more. The Nazis shocked not because of what they did, but because it was anachronistic. Mass murder is (on the whole) something from the ancient past, and very much should stay there.

            After the second world war, when the full horrors became known, pretty much everyone who was left standing (including the German people) said "never again". The thing is, plenty of those people had their fingers crossed behind their backs, because they knew they weren't acting entirely nicely themselves. The British invented the concentration camp, Churchill (held as a paragon by many, in their ignorance), was a deeply bigoted person born into a life of extreme privilege (in one of our country's most ornate palaces), who espoused the mass murder of the Kurdish people, the US enacted Operation Paperclip to scoop up war criminals whose usefulness outweighed the interests of justice, Stalin committed mass murder himself, and so on. Nobody was sparkly-clean in this.

            Over time, people have forgotten the face of fascism, and how it arrives. It has passed out of living memory, and snuck back in by the back door. The societal memory is of the Holocaust, and not really of all the other things that went with it. Hitler didn't turn up and start the Holocaust on day one, his reign of terror started by demonising minorities and political opponents. The beginning of this was deportations. The exterminations started small-scale by rounding up and murdering disabled people, combined with turning a blind eye to political violence (such as Kristallnacht), just like the Jan 6th pardons.

            Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. -that nasty bastard, Churchill

    3. Wang Cores

      Guessing you're wondering where your social security check is at?

      Eat the bugloaf and turn in your guns. Daddy is home.

    4. cornetman Silver badge

      > Eat the bugloaf and turn in your guns. Daddy is home.

      > they did the public into thinking why change it for

      Honestly, I didn't expect a lot of agreement with my opinion here and I don't necessarily agree with everything that Trump is doing, but what's with all the weird-ass responses. There really is something to the Trump-derangement syndrome accusation. Instead of rational rebuttals it just seems that there is something about Trump that gets under people's skin that makes them react so emotionally and irrationally, and frankly weirdly. Some of you just don't sound all that sane and it doesn't do much for your credibility.

      Passionate opinions on both sides are welcome, but don't get all weird.

      1. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

        "Passionate opinions on both sides are welcome, but don't get all weird."

        Man you could smelt that one down and build a battleship with it.

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        President pardons cop-killers who tried to help him stage a coup, he then gives controls of government purse-strings to his financial backer who then installs his own minions to take over the data.

        Just normal day-day operations of the body-politic. Pretty much what Jefferson and Franklin had in mind.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          At least he's got the balls to do it openly.

          1. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

            You're really not well, are you?

        2. SundogUK Silver badge

          "President pardons cop-killers who tried to help him stage a coup, he then gives controls of government purse-strings to his financial backer who then installs his own minions to take over the data."

          This is what he means by 'getting weird.' Not one fact here is true.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            "Not one fact here is true"

            Only if your a right wing loon pretending that alternative facts are real.

            so congrats on self identifying as a right wing loon

          2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

            Well, the Musk stuff is all over the news. Even they admit they are doing that.

            As for the cop killer, rather than receiving a pardon, his sentence was commuted, but he was still released and went on to commit further crimes.

            If your only complaint to that post is he said "pardon" rather than "commuted", then you are the one "getting weird"

            https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-clemency-jaime-davidson-b2606960.html

      3. BartyFartsLast Silver badge

        Orange Jeebus

        " Some of you just don't sound all that sane and it doesn't do much for your credibility."

        Oh I dunno, they all sound perfectly sane compared to Trump and a country which has a significant number of people who believe a sky fairy chose him.

      4. The Central Scrutinizer Silver badge

        Weird ass? Look in the mirror.

      5. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

        Passionate opinions on both sides are welcome.

        This, here, is the problem.

        Reducing everything down to "two sides", where one of those sides is fascism, and the implication that fascism is "just a political opinion".

        Point out that fascism inevitably ends in exterminations, and the response will be "but Stalin murdered people too", thus reducing the argument to which form of mass murder is best.

        Here's a crazy idea: fascism can fuck off, Stalinism can also fuck off, and Nazi apologism cloaked as superficial reason like yours can fuck off, too.

        Go on, fuck off.

      6. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

        Repeat ad nauseum, if you want to have a rational discussion about the pros and cons of the Trump administration, which adults on both sides are happy to have, if you throw in an ad hominem like TDS, you will be immediately moved to the children's table, where you and the other tykes can throw your shit at each-other.

        At this point, things will be weird, because you have discharged yourself of the responsibility of measured, yet passionate debate.

        Just thought it would be worth explaining why your thread has immediately derailed itself.

        1. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

          In the one hand, the ad-hom is "TDS".

          On the other hand, it is "Nazi fascist dictator"!

          Godwin applies here too.

          1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

            Just a quick reminder that this tired, regurgitated argument is invalid, because Godwin literally said so. But I wouldn't want to muddy the water with my oar, since I am a mere commentard, and how you decide to run your far, far away country is none of my business. I'm just here for the free tea and biscuits. Take it up with the guy who made an exception to his own law.

            I'm with thereg's editor in chief Chris Williams here. We're not anti-Trump, just anti-stupid. Don't be stupid, and before opening gobshite, do this research I keep hearing people confidently banging on about before humiliating themselves.

            Toodle pip.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Are you Trump? No? Then it is not ad hominem.

      7. codejunky Silver badge

        @cornetman

        "Passionate opinions on both sides are welcome, but don't get all weird."

        I am not sure such is possible. There is a group for which any opinion of what Trump does or says must be demonising him. Any deviation from that at all in the slightest (even just balanced or objective) is considered a MAGA cultist Trump worshipper. I am sure the same must probably exist at the other extreme (some form of actual MAGA extremist) but mostly I encounter the former making the most noise.

        I notice that one commenter dismisses your whole comment because you rightfully mentioned TDS. By not validating their feelings you are one of their enemy, because only the extreme Trump hatred can be valid, reality be damned.

        1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

          Re: @cornetman

          It is quite a shame that you feel that way. Trump doesn't really affect me, not living in the US. I'm not even on the left of politics. But by immediately conjuring a persona to snipe at, you have contributed nothing, and you have set out from the start to be caustic and combative. This is not really your fault, you have all been trained to do this by both the republicans "TDS", and the democrats "Deplorables"

          The reason the US is rapidly becoming a failed state is that both sides of the spectrum imagine the other as a polar opposite, to be crushed and ridiculed. Since the distribution is approximately equal, both parties oscillate every 4-8 years, and immediately set about tearing up the previous government's work. Hence, nothing gets done, and slowly things stagnate further.

          Name calling each-other and constant one-upmanship is not "balanced" or "objective" but playground behaviour that immediately derails a discussion. If you actually sat down and talked as empathetic humans, you would discover you actually agree on significantly more things than you disagree, and working to cooperate rather than sabotaging and baiting each-other constantly is a way you can both win.

          Anyway, I am off to have some scrambled eggs, because I can afford them in my country.

          1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

            Re: @cornetman

            No, it is his fault, he is always, by choice, combative (and almost always factually wrong).

            It must be very, very sad to live inside his head, it must be a very lonely and hostile place.

      8. Wang Cores

        https://www.yahoo.com/news/tucker-carlson-compares-trump-dad-110154985.html

        I am not repeating anything that your own thought leaders haven't said. I'm just wondering why you seem to object to me coming on-board the maga train?

        Does it need to be blessed as "not woke" first by the local shaman or something?

    5. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

      Or we could just stop idiots from voting, of course that would be unconstitutional. Although that doesn't seem to be a problem for the idiots.

      1. Gary Stewart Bronze badge

        I just came up with a cunning plan! We could declare all idiots to be only 3/5s of a person. I mean it worked before so it must be constitutional.

      2. lglethal Silver badge
        Go

        Can I make two alternative proposals here

        1) Make voting mandatory! 100% of the voting population being forced to vote would go along way to shutting up the extremes, since by definition the majority sit in the middle. If your forced to vote, people who previously wouldn't vote (over 40% of the US population in the last electing) might consider alternatives and you might get rid of the 2 party state that exists at the moment.

        2) Change the electoral college system, so that parties get the percentage of votes they receive in each state. So if a party wins 60% of the votes in a state with 10 college points, then they get 6 and the other party gets 4. Then every vote counts and you'll have a significantly more engaged public.

        Make those changes and you'll see that the political discourse will move much more to the centre and might actually allow this parties to make an entrance!

        1. Richard 12 Silver badge

          2) is how it was originally intended.

          Then some parties realised that if they changed to "winner takes all", they'd get the other 40%, and they had enough of a majority in the state legislature to do it.

          So the parties in all except two states followed suit, because otherwise they'd lose.

          The root of the problem comes down to the founders thinking political parties wouldn't exist, so doing nothing to limit the power of a Party.

          Of course, The Party is inevitable. All must worship The Party. All Hail GOP.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Are the majority in the middle? I think the salary curve is not a symmetric bell.

          The only problem with democracy, is that the majority do not think critcally and many incapable of it, but its still the best system on offer. However, this means that if everyone had to vote you would be guaranteed wide spread criminal vote harvesting and the end of democracy because most of the idiots would simply vote for the best liars. Witness the love of the Democrats on here! The demonstratbly most corrupt US government in aeons, corrupted by nefarious interests of the "deep state". Look at all you lot on here thinking USAID is some kindly aid agency helping poor far off countries - do some research! It's not a well kept cover story.

          1. Alumoi Silver badge

            if everyone had to vote you would be guaranteed ... the end of democracy because most of the idiots would simply vote for the best liars

            Now, at least we have some kind of democracry where everybody votes for the best liar and that's understandable.

            People in power have long understood that you don't offer people options as they are likely to choose wrong (aka, kick you out of power). So you give them only awful choices, forcing them to choose between bad and worst.

          2. lglethal Silver badge

            Australia would like to argue with your assumption that if everyone has to vote you have criminal vote harvesting (whatever that happens to mean). We have compulsory voting, 99+% voting every election, and our parties remain more or less in the centre. If a party starts getting to extreme or too big for its boots, the elector swings back to the centre.

            Compulsory voting also means that you dont get the "He's not my president". Because the Majortiy DID vote for the party in power. It works very well, in fact.

            But then you will never see it in the US as the politicians work as hard as possible to disenfranchise the voters that dont vote for them in EVERY part of the US...

          3. Casca Silver badge

            And a AC vomits right wing crap. Like usual. You cant even be arsed to create an account? Or are you just that cowardly?

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              "You cant even be arsed to create an account? Or are you just that cowardly?"

              They do have to create an account to post comments. But I can only think of two reasons to post AC. They are hiding that they are new and only joined up to troll, or they are ashamed or frightened that their political views may cast aspersions on their other posts and "out" them. I rarely take a post by an AC seriously, but it's probably best to not let them go unchallenged too often.

          4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            "Are the majority in the middle?"

            Not necessarily. It was thought that proportional representation in N Ireland would favour moderates. What happened was the two extremist parties ended up carving up the spoils between them sharing government.

            1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

              To be fair, NI is a special case, and the power-sharing is in place because of the already deeply polarised cultural and religious bias, based on what is basically a hangover from English colonialism.

              What is of note, is that that polarisation is diminishing over time, especially since that power-sharing has been in place. The political makeup of the NI assembly has yet to follow entirely, but it is moving in a more moderate direction.

          5. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

            If I had a dollar for every time someone plucked a talking point out of their ass saying "do some research!", without providing citations, I would be able to buy Greenland, or 3 eggs.

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              "or 3 eggs."

              That many? Wow! Are prices finally coming down as Trump promised many, many times during his campaign?

          6. that one in the corner Silver badge

            > Look at all you lot on here thinking USAID is some kindly aid agency helping poor far off countries - do some research! It's not a well kept cover story.

            USAID exists solely to advance American Interests across the world - is that the "secret" you think was being "covered up"?

            The difference is, USAID does that by, yes, helping poor people in far off countries. And makes damn sure that everybody knows about it. Because that aids US Interests, including but most definitely not limited to[1]:

            * Helping to control spreadable disease outside the US reduces the amount of said disease coming into the US.

            * Helping to (re)build in foreign lands reduces the number of displaced trying to get into the US.

            * For all the lily-livered pinkoes in the developed world, the US is seen to be doing something ucomplicatedly positive we can approve of.

            This is all under the banner of "Soft Power". Which I guess just isn't as exciting to watch on TV compared to sending in the gunboats.

            [1] this is lots of words already and, yes, we also all know that the rancid side of US influence "can get people in under the radar disguised as aid workers" - no matter how bloody stupid that idea is.

            1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

              For a case in point of what abandoning relatively cheap soft power looks like, just take a look at the UK's stagnating economy under Brexit.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              * provides a front for cia operations

          7. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

            "However, this means that if everyone had to vote you would be guaranteed wide spread criminal vote harvesting and the end of democracy "

            An interesting point. Under the existing system, Trump and the Reps claimed the election was stolen when Biden won and went to extreme measures to "prove" vote fixing and other shenanigans. This time around, with a distinct possibility of losing, the Reps and Trump lodged many, many pre-emptive legal challenges when, much to their surprise, they won! And not one single case of voter fraud was brought up by Trump and the Reps, not one single case pre-emptively lodged was initiated. Clearly some miracle happened between 2020 and 2024 and voter fraud has just evaporated! Based on that alone, I'd say your assertion that compulsory voting would lead to "criminal vote harvesting" is patently wrong and Trump agrees, otherwise there's be court cases now trying to prove fraud and increase his win, most especially by the "party of law and order".

            Unless, of course, it was all a conspiracy by the Reps to sow confusion and discord when they lost and no longer an issue when the public voted the "right way" (or they themselves corrupted the vote and this time "got it right". (See how easy it is make almost reasonable sounding assertions? LOL)

            1. codejunky Silver badge

              @John Brown (no body)

              "And not one single case of voter fraud was brought up by Trump and the Reps"

              I am not sure who it was who brought up the fraud but the 2024 election did see a states supreme court slap down fraudulent ballot counting. The problem being that illegal ballots were being counted, and intentionally, to try and secure the democrat win. That was in Pennsylvania I believe.

              I would like to believe the 2020 election was free and fair but it is hard to believe. The misbehaviour accused in 2020 caused people to pay more attention and watch how votes are processed, and have caught misbehaviour as accused. Overwhelming evidence throwing out one election due to misbehaviour of public staff trying to help their candidate at the ballot box. Republicans and others have been legally challenging before the 2024 election to clean up the ballot lists and democrats have fought hard to keep them incorrect. And finally the magic voters that helped Biden cross the finish line that appear that once then vanish from existence.

              I am hoping there will be investigations now into the 2020 election to clear it up either way. But while I would like to believe (Idealistically) that it was all above board, I do accept it is not likely.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                1. codejunky Silver badge

                  Re: @John Brown (no body)

                  @AC

                  "‘2000 Mules’ creator admits some of film’s claims are flawed"

                  And what does that have to do with the factual fraud that caused recounts and re-elections since 2020? Or the magic votes that pushed Biden to win but have vanished from existence?

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @John Brown (no body)

                codejunky>I do accept it is not likely.

                Already happened:

                https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c985yz5qepeo

                1. codejunky Silver badge

                  Re: @John Brown (no body)

                  @AC

                  "Already happened:

                  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c985yz5qepeo"

                  And yet when Biden won it was claimed a free and fair election. As you and I have pointed out, it is validly in question

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Re: @John Brown (no body)

                    "Tina Peters willfully compromised her own election equipment trying to prove Trump's Big Lie"

                    She was jailed.

                    1. codejunky Silver badge

                      Re: @John Brown (no body)

                      @AC

                      "She was jailed."

                      Yes. And yet compromising the equipment is just not possible when Biden won, the dems told you. Everything was above board, free and fair. Then we have at least 2 elections showing the corruption already pointed out involving public workers violating the rules and invalidating an election, and in 2024 illegal ballots being counted against a Supreme Court Ruling to try and make their candidate win. I dont care who tries to tamper, it is a violation of free and fair elections.

                      As I said I would like to believe the 2020 election was above board but it is very hard to believe so. And I am hoping a real investigation is conducted to get the facts and hopefully it actually wasnt corrupted at the ballot/voting level.

                      1. Anonymous Coward
                        Anonymous Coward

                        Re: @John Brown (no body)

                        And yet compromising the equipment is just not possible when Biden won

                        You need to read up on the case.

                        Illegally accessing the machines and sending identifiable voter data to MAGA Pillow Guy ended up with the perp being caught and jailed. So the idea that tampering with machines isn't detected & punished is false. Hmmm?

                        1. codejunky Silver badge

                          Re: @John Brown (no body)

                          @AC

                          "Illegally accessing the machines and sending identifiable voter data to MAGA Pillow Guy ended up with the perp being caught and jailed. So the idea that tampering with machines isn't detected & punished is false. Hmmm?"

                          Nope. After the 2020 election people started paying more attention and even gathered video evidence of public workers misbehaving which invalidated an election. It required overwhelming evidence which only came to light because people actually stuck video cameras up due to the 2020 strangeness.

                          Then also in the 2024 election illegal ballots were counted! Against the direct instruction of the Supreme Court! AND however many legal challenges against cleaning the voter rolls of invalid ballots by dems! Where did the magic voters go that got Biden elected?

                          1. Anonymous Coward
                            Anonymous Coward

                            Re: @John Brown (no body)

                            Nope.

                            What, "Nope "?

                            Good lord, are you a moon-landing denier too?

              3. Casca Silver badge

                Re: @John Brown (no body)

                You really swallow anything that the maga cult says

                1. codejunky Silver badge

                  Re: @John Brown (no body)

                  @Casca

                  "You really swallow anything that the maga cult says"

                  Are you somehow claiming its maga judges who invalidated an election and slapped down illegal ballot counting? Cmon shake a thought out of your brain

                2. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: @John Brown (no body)

                  You really swallow anything that the maga cult says

                  A symptom of Trump Dick Sucking.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          There's never a despair squid when you need one....

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm all for an entrance exam, voters have a duty to understand the issues affecting their country rather than just parrot the talking points of candidates or to a desire to trigger people.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Make that an entrance exam for candidates. Add a criminal record and financial history check as well.

          1. that one in the corner Silver badge

            > Add a criminal record and financial history check as well.

            Ain't the major problem here that we all know the financial history and criminal record - and that seemed to spur on voters?

      4. Someone Else Silver badge

        The "idiots" are the ones who don't (and didn't) vote.

    6. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: to not throw crucial babies out

      The precise purpose of the trick was to make absolutely certain no babies survived to pogrom. Try just one piece of evidence:

      President Donald Trump’s social media startup gifted more than $800,000 worth of stock each to Kash Patel, his nominee to run the FBI, and Linda McMahon, his pick to lead the Education Department, according to regulatory filings.

      Last time Truth Social was the main portal for bribing the President. Publicly broadcasting that the new head of the FBI has accepted a bribe shows that there will be no federal consequences for giving or receiving bribes. You voted for the face eating leopard party.

      1. Someone Else Silver badge

        Re: to not throw crucial babies out

        Yahbut...isn't accepting a bribe black-letter law for spurring on a Presidential impeachment?

    7. HereIAmJH Silver badge

      IRS

      Most Americans' experience of how bad things have gotten is through the gestapo department known as the IRS, an out-of-control body that is a law unto itself.

      I don't personally know anyone who has had trouble with the IRS. But most of my life I have associated with middle class people. Those of us who work W2 jobs where employers deduct payroll taxes from every paycheck. (Most of the non-1% pay the bulk of our federal taxes through payroll taxes) For me personally, the worst year I had was 2011 as the result of drawing unemployment during Bush Jr's recession. Unemployment benefits are taxable and most states don't withhold payroll taxes. That can make filing the next year a little unpleasant. Even when I was young, naïve, and skipped filing a couple years because my refund was so small. The only thing IRS did was told me to go back and file those prior years. And if I owed any taxes, there would be a penalty and interest.

      On a similar note, if you've got a tax return coming this year, better get your Federal filed ASAP while they are still making payments. No government services are guaranteed any longer. And if Elmo fucks up the payment system the US's credit rating will get downgraded. (that means the cost of the debt will increase, making it necessary to cut more programs or run a higher deficit) Trump and Elmo both have a tendency to just not pay the little people when it suits them.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Joke

        "I don't personally know anyone who has had trouble with the IRS. "

        What about "The late great Alphonse Capone"?

        1. EarthDog

          Re: "I don't personally know anyone who has had trouble with the IRS. "

          well he's long dead. No one can know him personally. Also, he deserved it.

    8. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "the IRS, an out-of-control body that is a law unto itself"

      This is characteristic of all tax-collecting bodies.

    9. UnknownUnknown

      … and State Governments… and County Governments … and Town Councils.

      Just removing unnecessary duplication and overlap would net hundreds of millions .. if not more $$.

      There is absolutely no need for 50x States having their own DMV and variations on driving rules and insurance requirements.

      - Federal Level Driving Licence

      - Same Federal Level Traffic Legislation Nationwide

      - Mandatory ‘at fault’ insurance Nationwide.

      - You can pump your own gas in Jersey.

      Keep it simple.

      1. UnknownUnknown

        Down voted by my stalker bot within 15 mins

        I guess that is what the automation from Russia is set to.

        1. UnknownUnknown

          10 minutes actually - LOL.

        2. HereIAmJH Silver badge

          Down votes

          Down voted by my stalker bot within 15 mins

          Look at it this way; if you never get downvotes you are either in an echo chamber or no one is reading your posts.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "Keep it simple."

        Everything you suggested is ideal for more efficient Government. But it also increases Federal Government. This puts Trump and Musk at odds, one aiming for "smaller" Govt., the other "efficient" Govt. I wonder how many heads will explode when they realise that?

  5. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Unhappy

    It does'nt matter

    Trump is immune to prosecution for official acts.

    So says the supreme court.(with 3 judges appointed by trumpty)

    So if he makes it an official act to shut down USAID and allow muskrat to raid it..... its legal.

    And thus another guardrail to US democracy falls..........

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It does'nt matter

      IIRC Congress can still impeach him. Unless they are handing over their power to him completely.

      1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

        Re: It does'nt matter

        It takes a 2/3 majority to impeach. Given that half of congress are Trump's puppets, it's not happening.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: It does'nt matter

      No, you're conflating his personal immunity from prosecution with the legality of his decrees. Courts can, and are, already ruling against some of the degrees. For example, Trump could pass a law requiring the death of left-handed people and start the ball rolling by cooly shooting one. SCOTUS brainfade probably means that nothing would happen to him but the decree would be ruled unconstitutional and the protection would not extend to any lackeys that tried to enforce it; though Trump could, of course, pardon them and I think we may see an awful lot of pardons over the next few years.

      1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

        Re: It does'nt matter

        In theory courts can push back. However we are less than two weeks into his term. In a couple of months, the cases will start piling up, at which point the whole system is DDoS'd.

        Trump knows this, and has also relied on this in the past.

    3. OhForF' Silver badge

      Re: It does'nt matter

      >So if he makes it an official act to shut down USAID and allow muskrat to raid it..... its legal.<

      It is still illegal even if Trump can't be prosecuted for official acts. The problem here is that being illegal won't stop the likes of Trump and Musk if there are no penalties so they will continue to do what they like unless the people in the US rise up.

    4. Someone Else Silver badge

      Re: It does'nt matter

      So if he makes it an official act to shut down USAID and allow muskrat to raid it..... its legal.

      Not it is not legal. It's just unpunishable.

    5. UnknownUnknown

      Re: It does'nt matter

      It’s not made legal, he just can’t be held to account for it.

      That’s a conundrum for the courts to find a way forward - How can an unlawful act be allowed to be enacted?!

      There is wriggle room both sides there…. and

      Massive scope for unfair dismissal cases, regardless of Section F - which is also unlawful.

  6. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    DOGE

    Department Of Government Extermination

    1. Shuki26

      Re: DOGE

      Curious why this seems to be a partisan issue. It is an undeniable fact that most governments have become over bloated and can be made more efficient. This is a science oriented website with what I assume are science-oriented thinking people but I mostly see here kneejerk reactions to the bad orange man.

      1. OhForF' Silver badge

        Re: DOGE

        You'd probably get pretty much everyone to agree to cutting down administrative overhead in the government to make it more efficient. Announcing specific measures you want to take to achieve that will already get a part of those supporters to critize your approach. Cutting down the money spent will make those benefiting oppose you.

        Do you really expect bringing in a billionaire known for his highly controversial acts to implement an unapproved plan with scant publically known details to meet universal support?

        1. UnknownUnknown

          Re: DOGE

          DoGE is just shutting shit down and not paying people.

          Go Fast, break things … and fix, deal/live with it ‘Agile Innit’ is the order of the day.

          Same as Twitter.

      2. that one in the corner Silver badge

        Re: DOGE

        > It is an undeniable fact that most governments have become over bloated and can be made more efficient.

        True.

        But only because every single organisation has bloat in it. Every one. Even if you are a Sole Trader you can cut down on the Digestive Biscuits.

        There is also a (ludicrously complicated) balance to be struck between "cutting out the bloat" and the cost of (trying) to do that: no point adding up the pennies going to McVities rather than Lidl if you get a better contract because you were happier on the phone call when the dunk didn't drop to the bottom of the mug. Try putting that into your Excel spreadsheet.

        The biggest issue with government bloat is simply that of scale and people failing to get their heads around it: red-top headline "MoD wastes 12 miilion per year on Rich Tea".

        Yes, they fail at things (government IT!). And when they do fail, they fail big. Because they are big. And the people inside are just as bloody awful at understanding scale as those outside: it just becomes silly numbers.

        We can always point to specific line items that are failing - and damn well should - but just running around shouting about unspecified generic bloat is vacuous.

      3. Someone Else Silver badge

        Re: DOGE

        This is a science oriented website with what I assume are science-oriented thinking people [...]

        You know what happens when you assume....

      4. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: DOGE

        Just a minor correction for you here: This is an IT-oriented website. IT is more correctly considered an engineering discipline (at least, if done right), than a scientific one, unless you are conducting basic research into things that can be made into computers (and most of that sort of research was done well over half a century ago).

        Some of us (myself included) come from a scientific background, and there is such a thing as "computer science," although that bears little resemblance to the Scientific Method.

        As for "kneejerk reactions," most educated people's reactions to the bloviated self-aggrandising blowhard that is Trump, is that he is talking bollocks. It's hardly jerking the knee to recognise fallacy when it's so obvious to anyone with even half an education, and most people here are more than capable of discerning truth from fiction.

    2. SundogUK Silver badge

      Re: DOGE

      "Department Of Government Extermination"

      You say that like it's a bad thing.

      1. JLV Silver badge

        Re: DOGE

        Obviously, ditching the government is an excellent idea as long as it applies to services other folks need and things other folks care about.

        Now, let's hear you repeat the above when your car falls off a badly maintained bridge. More generally, when Musk has Twitter-CEO-ed the government to the point where nothing works.

    3. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

      Re: DOGE

      The more worrying thing is that it is heading towards the Department of Genocidal Extermination. You only have to see the extreme racism that Musk promotes on his propaganda platform to see what he has planned next (currently at the "make acceptable" stage before the "put into action" stage). Nazi Salutes, AfD rallies, promotion of Tommeh Ten Names, retweeting of white supremacy and openly racist memes, the examples are myriad and concerning.

      These people telegraph their intents very openly, it is only people's wilful blindness and unwillingness to think the worst of others that mean that they come as any sort of surprise at all.

      1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

        Re: DOGE

        And now he's said he's going to take over Gaza, and expell all Palestinians.

        So already, this chump that Maga claims is not a warmongerer had threatened a war with Denmark (Greenland), Mexico, Panama, Iran, tried a coup in Venezuela, and imperialistic takeovers of Gaza and Canada.

        MAGA morons are a cult

        1. fajensen

          Re: DOGE

          Gaza will keep him, and the US military, occupied for quite awhile. It’ll set a precedent that it is OK to grab land and dispose of the people living on it.

          Which is exactly what Russia and China want!

  7. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    Agent Orange + Napalm

    Were deployed to devastating and enduring effect during the Vietnam War.

    Agent Orange and Musk have just started to do the same to the Federal Government.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Agent Orange + Napalm

      >Were deployed to devastating and enduring effect during the Vietnam War.

      Although largely against their own people . . . .

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Agent Orange + Napalm

        Own people? Have you seen any laws against wealthy idiots?

  8. HuBo Silver badge
    Gimp

    Hasta la corporatist fascism Meloni

    Great link to Mother Jones (under "said to have"): "imagine if the US government were to stop paying bills because a billionaire saw a social media post from a conspiracy theorist urging him to do so"!

    Reality just so utterly beats fiction to a pulp somedays ... blows one's mind, clean off (in the worst possible way)!

  9. An_Old_Dog Silver badge

    Classified Documents in a "Development" Organisation?!

    Why?

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Unhappy

      " Classified Documents in a "Development" Organisation?! "

      There are actually two different items here.

      1) Shutting down USAID to give Leon more money to fund those tax cuts

      2) Leon and his chums (like large Marj) access to the Treasury Payment System which AIUI pays the bills on all the USG programmes, which gives Leon insight into anymoney his existing (and future) competitors are being paid.

      IDK if there are any classified elements to the USAID scheme. There could be if an Administration was paying some especially nasty regime a bag of cash they didn't want the world to know about. OTOH they ships pallets of cash to Karsi in Afghanistan and I'm pretty that went nowhere near USAID.

    2. lglethal Silver badge

      Re: Classified Documents in a "Development" Organisation?!

      Shall I give a hypothetical answer?

      Say your wanting to implement a scheme in Somalia to dig some wells and improve the lives of the local farmers.

      You would probably obtain from the CIA, a list of areas which are safe, and a few others where it would be possible to be safe with a suitable backhander to a local source.

      That information would likely be classified because a) if the Somali militants found out that an area was considered safe, they'd definitely try to attack it, and B) if the fact that there's a local contact to the militants was learned by the government, that contract is a dead man, and then that area goes back to being a chaos zone.

      If the report happened to still include names for people on the grounds who provided these details and that info got it to either the government or the militants, then those information sources would soon be dead (from both sides).

      Hence classified information. That's just one hypothetical example. Others would likely be about the picadillos of certain despotic or corrupt rulers, giving the people on the ground enough Ammo to let them run their aid programs with the minimum of hassle.

      If you want to work in a lot of these areas, it's what you know and who you know that actually allow you to get things done. Classified info would help with that...

  10. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Black Helicopters

    Phhft.. security clearance

    I bet the high waving Twitler is confident that he hasn't accidentally hired any foreign agents because this time he made sure they're... good people with a look you can trust.

  11. Bluck Mutter

    The irony in all of this is the US has spent tens and tens of trillions of dollars over the last 50 years "protecting the fearful American People" from all the nasty foreign people out to destroy it and it's "democracy" (total doesn't include the additional trillions wasted on boondoggles like the "War on Terror") and yet, in the space of two short weeks two blokes (with a handful of others) have basically destroyed whatever democracy the US had and will continue to do so.

    The mid-terms don't matter cause even if for some reason the Dem's get control of both houses, the damage is done.... there will be nothing left.

    Trump, Musk etc are working outside of the US democratic frame work which has no response...just like a deadly virus the body has no immune defense against.

    As an outsider married to a US citizen (but residing happily since 2008 in one of those nasty lefty, liberial social democracy countries so hated by MAGA), we sit here and watch as the US experiment crashes down without a shot being fired.

    The world will keeping on chugging along without the US and never again will it be trusted by any other nation to act responsibly.

    Bluck

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Coat

      "never again will it be trusted by any other nation to act responsibly."

      But as Sean Connery said "Never say 'never again' "

      On the upside the FOCF is showing exactly where a system founded on 18th Century ideas of personal honour and ethics have completely failed to contain a collection of bad actors who saw they could get more for themselves by destroying the system than working within it.

      The sustained slow poisoning of the Courts system by Leonard Leo's Federalist Society to support his Opus Dei grade SEL agenda, the complete failure of formal conflict-of-interest rules (with criminal penalties) for SCOTUS would be a start.

  12. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    "Musk and his DOGE-y crew"

    Including large Marj.

    Nice return to form for Reg writers.

  13. EarthDog

    POV of an American

    I've seen this coming for a looooonnnnnngggg time, at least 2008. We crossed the bridge of legal safeguards long ago. We are now actually in the two .22 bullets in the back of the head era. See also Luigi.

    Two points of hope; Trump is old and fat, and he is a coward that actually backs down often.

    What will be interesting will be what Trump's "Night of the Long Knives" will look like.

    1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

      Re: POV of an American

      Night of the large pies.

    2. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

      Re: POV of an American

      You're making an assumption that it will be Trump's NotLK and not Musk's (or someone else's). Who is the SA, and who is the SS in this scenario?

      Also, more importantly, although it's a comparison I have made myself, it's a bit of an assumption to assume that history is going to go down in exactly the same way twice.

      The wider point to be aware of, is that narcissistic personalities, of which there are more than just Trump and Musk, tend to work against each other, not with each other. They work together when there is a common goal, but these people are ruthless, and as soon as one sees an opportunity to gain more wealth and power by betraying the other, they will. There are other players here who are considerably less wealthy and powerful than either Trump or Musk are, so I'd suggest looking to see who else has that glint in their eyes. All the worst people are in the room here, metaphorically.

      1. EarthDog

        Re: POV of an American

        Well I have thought MAGA = SA . As far as SS goes I’m not sure. I’m not sure it will repeat but it will rhyme.

        The narcissists will kill each other but also don’t forget the role of syncopaths. They can also be dangerous

        1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

          Re: POV of an American

          There are obvious parallels between MAGAs and the SA, the main difference is, of course, that the SA were led by Röhm, who was a mere military officer, and the MAGAs are led by Trump himself, whose role here as the unquestionable head of state is much more of a parallel to Hitler. The SS were led by Himmler, and Hitler deliberately pitted Himmler against Röhm. In a sense, Musk could be considered as an analogue of Himmler, but he doesn't really have an equivalent of the SS under him to do his dirty work, he just has a few sycophantic keyboard warriors who aren't exactly the sort to go round smashing in doors and dragging their rivals into the street at 3am. Trump also, in a sense, owns the "Proud Boys," the Jan 6th insurrectionists, and other far-right white supremacist groups, who would be more of a natural comparison to the SS. I can't envisage him pitting those against the MAGAs though, not least because there is probably a fair amount of overlap in the two groups, but also because they are all under his control, so he'd gain nothing by doing so.

          Watch and wait for what happens between Musk and Trump, though, and keep an eye on the other players who are going to want a piece of the pie. Zuckerberg is making motions towards pre-compliance, and there are some proper nasty people with solid fascist credentials like Peter Thiel waiting in the wings (incidentally, another one from Apartheid-era South Africa). I'd watch every billionaire, and not just the US-based ones, as one prerequisite for amassing that sort of wealth is having a ruthless desire to draw money and power to oneself, almost exclusively at the cost of others.

          1. fajensen

            Re: POV of an American

            Zuckerberg comes across as that awkward kid who was always picked last for any team activity.

            He’d be taken out first, as a kind of team building exercise, and to gauge the mood of the people towards that kind of thing: “The People” will love it.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Leopards eating faces is a worn out trope

    All those trump fans are going to be so grateful when Elmo stops paying government benefits, removes their healthcare, unemployment etc.

    Just what they wanted.

    Until they realise it's their money being stopped and syphoned off.

    And DEI doesn't mean you have to hire unqualified people, it means you have to hire qualified people without allowin gender, race or other bias to influence decisions. Can't wait for that to sink in too.

    1. Ian Johnston Silver badge

      Re: Leopards eating faces is a worn out trope

      Amy discussion of diversity policies here invariable ends up with a bunch of embittered white men complaining that any women or non-white people employed at their workplaces or - shudder - promoted above them must on;y have succeeded as a result of discrimination. Because to a certain type of person, only people who look they do can possibly be any good at their job.

  15. Potemkine! Silver badge

    Idiots took over

    I wonder how long it will take to see the US democracy to totally collapse.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Idiots took over

      That's entirely the point - they want it to collapse so they can be there to pick up the pieces and make a profit out of each piece.

      If they're getting what they want then you can't call them idiots. Psychopaths probably, but not idiots.

      1. nematoad Silver badge
        Unhappy

        Re: Idiots took over

        I know that Trump keeps saying "Russia,Russia,Russia" when anyone questions interference in elections but it does look as if Russia has influenced Trump in another way.

        The chaos caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union gave people in the right place an opportunity to take large portions of the Russian economy into their own hands and become the so called Oligarchs. It may be that Trump, Musk and all the other hangers-on see a similar chance if they can destroy the US government. Just look at all the billionaires swarming around the Trump. Are they doing that as part of their civic duty to support the President?

        Or are they there hoping to get a slice of the pie and another mega-yacht, a bigger private jet or tasty government contracts?

        It's what the Russians did and maybe this bunch of shysters are just following the playbook.

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

          Re: Idiots took over

          If you look at Trump's declared ambitions re Canada, Greenland & Panama canal the only real difference between that and Putin's active ambitions re Ukraine is the breadth of the grasp.

          1. SundogUK Silver badge

            Re: Idiots took over

            Do you not realise you have been trolled?

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Idiots took over

              [Everyone disliked that]

            2. Casca Silver badge

              Re: Idiots took over

              Rich comming from you

      2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

        Re: Idiots took over

        The billionaires are already betting on the American stock market to crash.

        It's all very dystopian

    2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Idiots took over

      That was last time and it almost worked on 2021-01-06. The attempted coup was a giant advert that it could work with better qualified people in charge. Four years to plan and now the plan is being implemented with speed and skill. Musk and Trump barely qualify as half-wits but this time they were able to attract a highly intelligent staff to fill key positions.

      1. druck Silver badge

        Re: Idiots took over

        You forgot the joke icon.

        The only skill his appointees have is answering "yes".

    3. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

      Re: Idiots took over

      About minus three months.

    4. decentralised

      Re: Idiots took over

      US democracy has already collapsed. President's complete power, manipulated by competing oligarchs. Future elections, if any, will be putin-style sham.

      All will follow suit, Scandinavian nations will be the last democracies.

      1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

        Re: Idiots took over

        Tyrannies always end. Usually involving gallows, firing squad, or guillotine, but sometimes being hanged upside-down from a lamp-post does the trick.

        This is not an incitement, just an observation. Push the people down hard enough, and they spring back up when they realise they have nothing left to lose.

        Those who concentrate all the power and wealth to themselves, at the cost of all else, should have learned to see it coming, but history has demonstrated time and again that they do not.

      2. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

        Re: Idiots took over

        I'll just add, that, sadly, places like Sweden have problems with the far right as well. It's a global problem. People have forgotten.

  16. harrys Bronze badge

    does not make any diff in medium/long term....

    Only one constant, no matter who is in power ....

    the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer, with more of the middle class joining them

    then the whole thing tumbles, becomes more egalitarian due to necessity

    rinse and repeat ad nauseum, evolutions a bitch :)

    1. SundogUK Silver badge

      Re: does not make any diff in medium/long term....

      "the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer"

      So after 250 years there should be no poor left as they have all starved to death. Oh, that hasn't happened?

      1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

        Re: does not make any diff in medium/long term....

        You are aware that humans can reproduce, right?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: does not make any diff in medium/long term....

          Hey, don't virgin-shame poor Sundog!

      2. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: does not make any diff in medium/long term....

        What usually happens is a violent revolution in which a significant proportion of the super rich are killed.

        See north america circa 1780, France circa 1790, Europe 1848, Russia circa 1920, eastern Europe 1989, and many more.

        The big problem is that after a violent revolution, violent revolutionaries tend to be in charge.

  17. wolfetone Silver badge
    Coat

    Land of the Free.... access to competitor information.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      If this isn't a reason for cloud exit I don't know what is.

      If you're a non-US business, you can't put business critical info in a cloud owned by any US tech company. They can't be trusted.

      1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
        Coat

        "They can't be trusted."

        Not while THE PATRIOT stands they can't.

        USG can ask for basically anything and they have to comply.

  18. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Clear conflicts of interest

    There are several statues which will limit both Musk's access to data and ability to act and Trump cannot remove these by decree. Elevated security clearance and access will require Senate confirmation and the Emoluments Act may well come into force for many of the "cabinet", even though Trump himself is now probably immune. It will all be a big distraction from the business of government, though that may be just what some of those involved want.

    1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Re: Clear conflicts of interest

      Trump has a supreme court to ignore any inconvenient statutes and even they do not matter.

      Two judges have already overturned Trump's spending freeze. If Musk does not control the treasury now then it will not be long. He simply won't pay the bills. Trump and Musk were both getting away with that before got control of the government.

      1. Joe 59

        Re: Clear conflicts of interest

        you almost sound like you like the fraud that's going on in these organizations. Are you afraid of where these payments are going? Are you personally benefiting from this fraud? Weird that you wouldn't want transparency in government.

        1. DryBones

          Re: Clear conflicts of interest

          Please. Like you're going to go look through it all yourself.

          No, you're not, sit down. You're just going to trade someone telling you that it's all horrible and bad for someone telling you that it's all perfect and good now, and never have an inkling to what the actual state was and is.

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Clear conflicts of interest

          Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is never a good solution. There may well be $millions in fraud, but stopping payments of $billions or $trillions which is NOT fraud is going to affect everyone. The $millions in likely fraud is a drop in the ocean. It needs stopping, of course, but that takes time to be done properly without hurting you and your family and friends. It's not something you fix in a few days, no matter how clever a billionaire you think you are.

  19. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Once the smoke has cleared in 4 years time it might be a good idea for the US to look at their constitution and ask if it needs a few more safeguards built in.

    It's common to say of the UK that it doesn't have a written constitution* but it is flexible. At the time America went on its merry way the UK had made a lot of progress in separating the roles of head of state and head of government and continued to do so. The US seems stuck in that past, indeed I'm not sure its as far advanced as the UK was at that time.

    * It's not all written in one place but there are a lot of separate Acts of Parliament which together go a long way to amount to one and a whole lot more in court judgments about common law. Fortunately there's enough flexibility left for it to keep evolving.

    1. SundogUK Silver badge

      "Once the smoke has cleared in 4 years time it might be a good idea for the US to look at their constitution and ask if it needs a few more safeguards built in."

      You can propose a constitutional amendment any time you like. Good luck getting it passed.

  20. PhilipN Silver badge

    Hooray for Uncle Sam's much vaunted checks and balances

    Oh... hang on a sec....

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Little deuce coup

    Instead of the Beach Boys we’ve got the Beastie Boys!

    It’s a coup.

    A takeover with extreme prejudice.

    Be very concerned.

  22. Alan Bourke

    World's greatest democracy

    it says here.

    1. MonkeyJuice Bronze badge

      Re: World's greatest democracy

      so it does! Wait, is that the CIA world factbook?

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: World's greatest democracy

      There was a Trumper posting here the other week also claiming it was the worlds oldest democracy too LOL :-)

  23. decentralised

    Destruction

    Presidents Xi and putin must be highly delighted. Chinese hegemony in sight. It might be for the best.

  24. codejunky Silver badge

    Aid?

    USAID apparently funding covid research (we know how that went), heroin production in Afghanistan, Burisma, etc. There might be some scope to make cuts.

    Also USAID was created by executive order so can be abolished by Trump without congress.

    1. Joe 59

      Re: Aid?

      One of the largest destinations of US AID taxpayer funds was.... The Clinton Foundation. So the money came in from the taxpayer, and immediately went out to an organization that has zero accountability and a worse track record. We can't burn US AID to the ground fast enough, but hopefully we can preserve the evidence and have a new subset of the FBI investigate it, though I doubt anything will come of it, I would like my taxpayer dollars back. If someone has a problem with cutting funding to US AID, they can donate directly to the CLinton Foundation.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Aid?

      Citation needed

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: Aid?

        @AC

        "Citation needed"

        Fair enough:

        https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-cia-keeps-poppingyah-up-in-the-biden-ukraine-saga/ar-AA1vdzYR

        https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2018/06/21/feds-u-s-taxpayer-funds-helping-irrigate-fertilize-afghan-opium-funding-taliban/

        https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/2023/03/ecohealth-alliance-statement-correcting-inaccuracies-in-cbs-news-reporting

        1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: Aid?

          Haha good one, you cited fucking Breitbart. Why not just add Putin's personal memoirs as an authoritative source, and I think we're done.

          1. codejunky Silver badge

            Re: Aid?

            @Elongated Muskrat

            "Haha good one, you cited fucking Breitbart."

            I cited 3 different sources for the 3 different items and you showed your ignorance so quickly? Are you so desperate for my attention- https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/11/20/x_marks_the_spot_for/#c_4969281

            1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

              Re: Aid?

              The other two were msn and some site nobody has ever heard of.

              None of the above are primary sources, and nobody has any reason to believe that any of them are balanced and unbiased.

              I sometimes wonder whether you actually know what a primary source is. I suspect you do, and are deliberately spreading bullshit.

              1. codejunky Silver badge

                Re: Aid?

                @Elongated Muskrat

                "The other two were msn and some site nobody has ever heard of.

                None of the above are primary sources, and nobody has any reason to believe that any of them are balanced and unbiased."

                The other ONE was msn. Yes I dont rate MSN as a news source and yet its left enough not to be considered right wing bias or Putin. The other IS a primary source you dumbass- https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-ecohealth-alliance-should-be-criminally-investigated-formally-debarred/

                Ecohealth are directly linked to the funding of Covid and the link I provided states clearly- Although Ms. Herridge and Ms. Novak do not mention EcoHealth Alliance’s work in China by name, we are clearly the target of this flawed reporting, since we were the only U.S. entity known to be funded by both USAID and NIH for work with Wuhan research institutes.

                "I sometimes wonder whether you actually know what a primary source is. I suspect you do, and are deliberately spreading bullshit."

                Now back to your issue- https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/11/20/x_marks_the_spot_for/#c_4969281

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Aid?

                  codejunky> Now back to your issue- https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2024/11/20/x_marks_the_spot_for/#c_4969281

                  A dangerous Ouroboros of codejunky bullshit.

                  1. Elongated Muskrat Silver badge

                    Re: Aid?

                    I wouldn't know, since he doesn't even have the with about him to make it a proper hyperlink. I suspect it's a callback to another of his dreary bullshit-laden threads, but the joke's on him, I'm under no obligation to give a shit, and I'm certainly not getting drawn into reading his old agitprop. Living in his head is nobody's punishment but his own.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            FAIL

            Re: Aid?

            They'll be adding Epoc Times citations next. Chortle.

        2. Jim Mitchell

          Re: Aid?

          That first is ON MSN, but is really a Daily Caller article. It is not an unbiased source.

          1. codejunky Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: Aid?

            @Jim Mitchell

            "That first is ON MSN, but is really a Daily Caller article. It is not an unbiased source."

            3 different items, 3 different sources I am happy at the difficult of people to complain about the contents of any.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Aid?

            They'll be posting releases from PR Newswire as a source soon.

          3. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Aid?

            Daily Caller

            Ah. This guy?

            http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73411

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Aid?

      A federal agency cannot be created by executive order. It was Foreign Aid Authorization Act of 1961, passed by Congress, which created USAid. The executive order dealt merely with bringing existing foreign assistance programs belonging to other agencies under USAid's purview.

      1. codejunky Silver badge

        Re: Aid?

        @AC

        "It was Foreign Aid Authorization Act of 1961, passed by Congress, which created USAid"

        Interestingly you do seem to be right about that. It looks like Trump can basically gut the place and remove the independence bringing its work under government control, but not necessarily close it just by EO.

        Yet I also read- "While initially being part of the State Department, the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 established it as independent agency within the Executive Branch" which would suggest Trump could close it.

        As an outsider watching over the pond it sounds weird.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Aid?

          Trump cannot do this unless he breaks the law, again:

          Can the President Dissolve USAID by Executive Order?

          "In short, Congress established USAID as its own agency and asserted its role in transfers of functions between USAID and State. It authorized the president to abolish or reorganize USAID for a moment in time, in accordance with the plan it authorized the then-president to provide in 1998. That reorganization occurred, with USAID’s independence retained. And there is no additional authority granted by Congress to the president to abolish USAID as an agency."

          1. Roland6 Silver badge

            Re: Aid?

            So as long as they don’t take the nameplate down and assign responsibility for USAID to someone, it’s all above board.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Aid?

      Apparently the next Trump Executive Order (after declaring all Americans to be female) will be to remove any references to a heliocentric, spherical Earth.

    5. Casca Silver badge

      Re: Aid?

      Apparently you are a right wing muppet

  25. RJW

    Can Trump literally do anything he likes? If so, what is the point of the Senate and Congress?

    Why are the Senate and Congress not pushing back hard against this madness?

    Sorry, I'm from the UK, I don't understand American politics.

    1. Joe 59

      If something was created with an executive order, it's not law, it's an executive office and he can do whatever he wants with it. The budget for it comes from congressional appropriations bills. So they say, Whitehouse, you get $x billions, do as you wish, and the whitehouse decides where to send it. He's just deciding to send it back to the taxpayer. Nothing he's done is even remotely illegal. He's only exposed to the light of day some deep deep corruption. US AID is a great example, but the small examples are things like National Public Radio, which has a distinct bias, and takes in millions in "donations" for commercial support along with billions in taxpayer dollars, and has zero oversight. The taxpayer doesn't have to pay for NPR. They can be entirely independently funded, as they are entirely independently operated. These cuts can't happen quick enough. Anyone complaining just doesn't like Trump or Musk or is benefiting from the fraud in a huge way.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Literally everything you just wrote is wrong

        Congress specifies what the executive is required to spend and on what.

        It is explicitly illegal for the executive to refuse to spend money Congress has appropriated on the things Congress says.

        That particular law was passed because of Nixon.

        Which leaves two problems:

        1) Trump and co are criming so fast that the courts can't keep up. By the time a judge has ordered a stay on one thing there's another five in their inbox.

        2) The Supreme Court has decided the law doesn't matter.

        1. DryBones

          Re: Literally everything you just wrote is wrong

          Actually it's just 1 problem.

          The branch of the government in charge of enforcing the laws isn't. They're basically doing what they accused others of doing.

          So it's pretty much going to be Authoritarianism vs Extrajudicial Measures.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "Anyone complaining just doesn't like Trump or Musk or is benefiting from the fraud in a huge way."

        "If you ain't with us, you're agin' us" is such a black and white mentality, I'm still surprised that in the "information age" it still exists. There;s a whole lot of brown in between black and white you know. Almost nothing in this human world is actually "us or them". You need to get out more and learn a bit about the world and human beings. Most are not like you.

    2. Joe 59

      Also, the FBI was started with an executive order, it could be ended with one. It's a federal agency wholly operated at the pleasure of the POTUS. He doesn't require congressional approval to hack his way through that corrupt agency. He could fire anyone he liked and cut the budget to $0 and there's nothing anyone can do. He won't end it, though he maybe should, given the corruption.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Can Trump literally do anything he likes?

      He turned all Americans female at the stroke of a pen. I'm guessing he's capable of anything!

  26. Joe 59

    This is a good start, but the cuts can't happen fast enough. US AID is a money laundering organization that essentially became untouchable under the last regime, and an audit would find people going to jail. So let's get a move on. Cut, cut, cut. Expose to the light of day the corruption large and small in the places where taxpayer money is spent.

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      You do realise Trump has no intention of actually reducing the IRS tax take?

      So expect to pay just as much direct taxation, more indirect taxation (trade tariffs) and receive even less in return…

      As for the tax revenues, he needs those for the welfare payments to Musk et al…

    2. OhForF' Silver badge

      How would you do an audit that can be upheld in court after musk brought in people that have admin access and can remove or modify any audit trail data?

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Simple, just manufacture a report, loosely based on evidence, then let Trump and his cronies shout about it. As we saw with the capital riot (and social media influencers) there are plenty of idiots that will believe any rubbish. Given the way the US legal system works, you will need to have very deep pockets and a thick skin to get your day in court; many years after the event (see Michael Lynch’s experience of the US legal system wrt the HP b****cks.)

        Basically, Trump doesn’t care about the law, just getting his own way.

    3. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      What makes you think that change is good, and the "saving" will somehow benefit the ordinary tax payer ?

    4. DryBones

      That's what the independent watchdogs, Congressional oversight, audits and such are for.

      There are well established processes and procedures for doing this, which are used in the accounting and business worlds.

      None of that is being done here. You should be questioning much, much more of what you have been parroting.

  27. Mitoo Bobsworth

    Stupidity...

    Thy name is the United States of America.

  28. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

    Weeks ago i mentioned that Elon is effectively the president and people said i was wrong.

  29. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

    Let me predict in a year or so there will be a crazy tens or hundreds of billions funding for SpaceX.

    You heard it here first.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Summary from The Economist

    "FOREIGN AID is easy to decry. Money is often wasted or stolen. Its benefits are hard to see. And giving money to foreigners means less for voters at home. That makes it an ideal target for the America First president, Donald Trump.

    But when so much assistance to so many of the world’s needy disappears overnight, as it did when the State Department ordered almost all aid to be cut on January 24th, the harm was visible everywhere. Clinics closed their doors; antiretroviral drugs to treat those infected with HIV dried up; work on controlling other viruses ceased; the clearing of land-mines stopped; support for refugees evaporated. The American-backed camps holding captured Islamic State fighters in Syria won a two-week waiver to keep receiving funds, which is only somewhat reassuring."

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Re: Summary from The Economist

      Foreign Aid by all countries is basically the government paying bribes so big business can skip a few local problems...

  31. Judge Dead.

    Just wondering..

    Not American, so just eating popcorn, watching the show...

    From here, it seems like Bonnie and Clyde have got in, locked the door, and are having a time...

    Apart from a few dips, Wall Street is either ignoring, or not fussed about all this chaos.

    . Do they know something we don't..?

    1. CowHorseFrog Silver badge

      Its sad how many similarities there are between Russia and America.

      Both wave flags, have big flags everywhere, nationalism is big, both have large areas who vehemently hate gays, both are obsessed with being great while actually being one of the worst western/european countries in terms of workers life and benefits for citizens.

  32. Bbuckley

    Drain the swamp baby!

    This is great news. USAID was a communist cesspit. A great result for civilsation and common sense.

  33. BiffoTheBorg

    All fascists start by limiting the reach of government and reducing waste in government spending, it's literally on page one of Mein Kampf.

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