“DOGE is being made up as it goes along by people who remain much more entrenched in their pre-existing private sector professional circles than they are within any network of public policy experts.”
“The problem is that this is not your typical administration, where you could call up a staffer, schedule a meeting, place a few op-eds, and move somebody to see things your way. Elon Musk is nearly un-lobbyable.”
“Washington is really used to deliberative processes where stakeholders get input … Musk doesn’t believe in any of that.”
These are but three of the quotes in a Thursday piece in Politico. It’s supposed to be straight news, although the slant certainly seems to be against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Why, you may ask? Well, they don’t play nice with the lobbyists on K Street in Washington, the District of Columbia. That’s right: We’re asked to pour one out for the lobbyists. Why, they have mouths to feed at home, too! And how are they going to feed them without being able to use a little of someone’s money to convince the federal government to give that person a lot of your taxpayer money? Huh?
Look, one gets that Politico is a publication that focuses on the viewpoint of Beltway insiders — I mean, it’s named “Politico,” for the love of Pete — but one is also hard-pressed not to find moments of unintentional hilarity in an article that starts thusly: “Washington’s lobbying class is grasping for an effective approach to an unprecedented challenge: how do you influence a mercurial outsider like Elon Musk who has immense but unofficial power and is the world’s richest person.”
Wait: We’re supposed to be alarmed at rich people having “immense but unofficial power?” Because, see, Musk does have official power; he’s at the helm of DOGE, which (like it or not) is a government office which makes policy suggestions which the president seems, on most days, to be keen on following.
When you want to talk about rich folks who have “immense but unofficial power,” you can go to K Street, the street in D.C. where most of the offices of the district’s most powerful lobbying firms are found. There, those who weren’t famous enough to take the revolving door from Capitol Hill or 1600 Pennsylvania to a media gig take the revolving door to a lobbying gig, where they transmute access to power into hefty salaries.
Matter of fact the Dems have their share of rich people with “immense but unofficial power”, like socialist billionaire George Soros. He’s pumped millions into the Dem party and their agenda, which relies heavily on the fraud, waste, abuse, and grifting operations that DOGE has eliminated.
President Trump is successful, exuberant, brash, confident, thinks outside the box, and goes against the grain of the Swamp status quo. He places America first.
He chose Elon Musk to head DOGE for that reason.
And they hate him for it.
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