LOS ANGELES.–Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), 62, replacing Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) as the most Trump-hating member of the House, says he agrees with conservatives Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer that mega-billionaire Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk has too much power in the Trump’s government. Musk was appointed by 78-year-old President Donald Trump to lead the DOGE government efficiency department, designed to weed out waste, fraud and mismanagement in government departments. “I’m with Steve Bannon and Loomer and the people on the right are saying ‘Watch Elon Musk,’ because he’s the guy who’s trying to centralize all power behind him and he hasn’t been elected to anything,” Raskin told Trump-hating Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Since Trump announced Musk would run the department of government efficiency, Democrats are out to get him.
Musk does nothing without Trump’s approval, something Democrats and the press say isn’t true. They’ve been saying from Day One that Musk is running the White House with Trump now controlled by the billionaire entrepreneur. Raskin was one of Kamala’s biggest backers in the 2024 campaign, saying only disparaging things about Trump that he intends to destroy U.S. democracy. Raskin agrees with Bannon and Loomer that Musk’s support of the non-immigrant H-IB visa programs encourages immigration and takes skilled jobs away from Americans citizens. Raskin opposes Trump and Musk’s push to shutter the Department of Education, claiming its $238 billion yearly budget wastes money on a bureaucracy that does nothing for education. Trump and his MAGA Republicans believe all education decisions should be left to the states and local school boards.
Musk has targeted the U.S. Agency for International Development [USAID] spending $38.1 billion on pet projects in foreign countries having to do with diversity, equity and inclusion for racial and gender groups. Trump wants to save taxpayers of wasteful government spending better left to the states, especially the federal Department of Education. Since the Reagan administration in 1981, Republicans have sought to close the Department of Education but has kicked the can down the road for the last 45 years. Trump, with Musk’s help, is the first president that could get close to shutting down the Department of Education, especially with a GOP three-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. Raskin told Maddow that Musk wants to control the nation’s communication infrastructure, government financial payments infrastructure and data infrastructure.
Trump came to office with a voters’ mandate to deal with waste, fraud and mismanagement in government agencies. Certainly the Department of Education supports and massive $338 billion bureaucracy that spends lavishly on administrators with little going to the schools or education systems around the country. “I mean, Elon Musk has basically tired to take control of the country’s communication infrastructure, the governmental financial infrastructure, the data infrastructure, and he’s go important parts of nodes of the military infrastructure,” Raskin told Maddow, spreading the kind of paranoia that sweeps the Democrat Party. Musk does nothing but implement Trump policy prerogatives, trying to prevent taxpayers from getting fleeced by the government. Raskin accused Trump of abusing civil rights and civil liberties when he’s actually saving rights from government corruption.
Raskin, was recently elevated to ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, promise to fight Trump legally where he sees him abusing civil rights. “So I’m looking right through Donald Trump, who no doubt wants to abuse everybody’s civil rights and civil liberties and centralize all power in him,” Raskin said. Raskin had no problems letting former President Joe Biden decide to go to war with the Kremlin, costing the U.S. Treasury over $200 billion but the complaining that there no money for other pet Democrat projects like DEI and more foreign wars. Raskin had no problems letting Biden wreck decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with Russia, then fund a proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. So when it comes to Raskin, civil rights is only a Democrat controlled agenda. Raskin likes to push the fake narrative that Musk now controls Trump.
Trump tried to clarify, with all the Democrat and press propaganda, what limited role Musk plays in rooting out waste, fraud and mismanagement in government. “He’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks were no good—if we agree with him, and its only if we agree with him,” Trump said in the Oval Office. Musk “cant do and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump said, disputing Raskin and the fake news narrative that Musk runs the Trump show. Dealing with waste, fraud and mismanagement has never been easy, especially for someone as high profile as Musk. It irks Democrats to no end the Trump places a billionaire with the task of firing government employees whose jobs are no longer considered necessary. If Trump wants Musk to do his job more efficiently, he should keep him out of the headlines to assure he gets things done.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.