1
00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: As media.

2
00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:14,720
Speaker 2: The government of two weeks ago no longer exists. We

3
00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:18,200
Speaker 2: are now in a fundamentally different country. Under the authority

4
00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,560
Speaker 2: President Trump. Elon Musk is leading a de facto cyber

5
00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,560
Speaker 2: coup of the United States. Using the intentionally vague and

6
00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:30,600
Speaker 2: unaccountable department of a government efficiency, Musk is seizing control

7
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:34,720
Speaker 2: of the United states critical digital infrastructure, literally rewriting the

8
00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,600
Speaker 2: code that runs our country, and culling the federal workforce.

9
00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,880
Speaker 2: Using the justification of removing government bureaucracy, Musk and the

10
00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:48,479
Speaker 2: Trump administration have installed their own batch of bureaucratic tech oligarchs,

11
00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:52,400
Speaker 2: made up of former Tesla and SpaceX interns and engineers,

12
00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:59,920
Speaker 2: teal fellowship researchers, pallenteer employees, eugenics enthusiasts, and literal nick fuentes,

13
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,880
Speaker 2: pilled groypers. Career employees have been locked out of their

14
00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:08,319
Speaker 2: respective agencies, both digitally and physically, as the DOGE team

15
00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:13,520
Speaker 2: ransacks various departments and accesses wide swaths of sensitive government data.

16
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,520
Speaker 2: Agency officials who have tried to resist Musk's seizure of

17
00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,240
Speaker 2: classified materials have been fired, and more federal employees have

18
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,520
Speaker 2: been put on leave, including the entirety of USAIDE. This

19
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,919
Speaker 2: effectively amounts to Musk abolishing the whole department, all without

20
00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:34,360
Speaker 2: congressional authorization or oversight, not even in executive order from

21
00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,720
Speaker 2: Trump that extends presidential authority on a whim. The unelected

22
00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,560
Speaker 2: Elon Musk decided to carry out to the closure of

23
00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:45,720
Speaker 2: an entire government agency, and he is far from finished.

24
00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,400
Speaker 2: Doge has hijacked the Treasury to withhold authorized payments to

25
00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,360
Speaker 2: multiple agencies, resulting in an ongoing battle of lawsuits and

26
00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:58,840
Speaker 2: court orders. This is it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis,

27
00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,680
Speaker 2: and this episode is an audio companion to an article

28
00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,400
Speaker 2: I published on the shatter Zone substack linked below in

29
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,640
Speaker 2: the description. You can follow along online at shatterzone dot

30
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,639
Speaker 2: substack dot com and click the hyperlinks for more information

31
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:18,880
Speaker 2: and sources. Elon Musk has personally directed the General Services

32
00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:24,200
Speaker 2: Administration to terminate leases on quote unquote mostly empty federal buildings.

33
00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:28,480
Speaker 2: The GSA, essentially the landlord of the federal government, was

34
00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 2: one of the first agencies to receive Musks quote unquote

35
00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,839
Speaker 2: fork in the road deferred resignation letter offering to buy

36
00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:39,600
Speaker 2: out the entire workforce. The legality of the letter is

37
00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,839
Speaker 2: still uncertain as it promises to pay out currently unappropriated

38
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 2: funds IRS. Workers who accepted the resignation offer have already

39
00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,320
Speaker 2: been asked to return to work until May. The newly

40
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,760
Speaker 2: appointed GSA Commissioner, Michael Peters, a private equity executive that

41
00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,840
Speaker 2: specializes in downsizing corporate real estate, has decided that quote

42
00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,960
Speaker 2: non DoD federal building space should be reduced fifty percent,

43
00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,720
Speaker 2: according to a GSA employee who requested to remain anonymous,

44
00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,360
Speaker 2: on top of planning to cut the entire federal portfolio

45
00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:16,560
Speaker 2: by half, DOGE is seeking to cut GSA's own budget

46
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,080
Speaker 2: by as much as fifty percent, with talk of consolidating

47
00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,600
Speaker 2: GSA offices into a few major cities using a quote

48
00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,160
Speaker 2: unquote hub model. Wired reports that DOGE staff may be

49
00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:32,280
Speaker 2: trying to use White House IT credentials to access GSA

50
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:37,120
Speaker 2: computers remotely. An anonymous GSA employee claims that few people

51
00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:40,160
Speaker 2: at the agency have elected to take up the voluntary

52
00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,920
Speaker 2: paid resignation offer, with those who have mostly being of

53
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,600
Speaker 2: retirement age. High level Trump appointees used quote unquote scare

54
00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:53,080
Speaker 2: tactics in agency emails pressuring career employees to accept the

55
00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:57,280
Speaker 2: deferred resignation offer, warning that cost cutting measures will eventually

56
00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,640
Speaker 2: lead to a further reduction in force. Employees are concerned

57
00:04:01,680 --> 00:04:04,880
Speaker 2: that a reduced federal workforce would result in federal buildings

58
00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:09,800
Speaker 2: losing their operations and maintenance contracts, with disastrous consequences for

59
00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,200
Speaker 2: the functionality of government buildings. Quote the brain drain is

60
00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:17,640
Speaker 2: going to cripple our ability to maintain the buildings even

61
00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:22,080
Speaker 2: more than it already was. We aren't overstaffed unquote for

62
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:26,960
Speaker 2: a GSA employee, they continued, quote, I think this process

63
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,919
Speaker 2: is already too far along to stop. I'm hoping we

64
00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,760
Speaker 2: just need to get to the mid terms unquote. What

65
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:37,840
Speaker 2: is happening across the federal government right now is unprecedented.

66
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,000
Speaker 2: But this is not Germany in the nineteen thirties. It's

67
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,560
Speaker 2: not the fall of the Soviet Union. We grasp at

68
00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,400
Speaker 2: analogies to help contextualize current events that escape understanding. There

69
00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,480
Speaker 2: are similarities, but what's happening is new, very American, very

70
00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:57,120
Speaker 2: twenty first century. Think of the growth of the Internet,

71
00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:02,240
Speaker 2: social media tech startups in fifty years. What's happening right

72
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:05,120
Speaker 2: now could be talked about in the vein of what

73
00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:09,640
Speaker 2: happened to the United States in the mid twenty twenties. Now,

74
00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:13,839
Speaker 2: rhetoric of cutting red tape and breaking federal bureaucracy has

75
00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:18,240
Speaker 2: been common political clap trap for decades, and previous efforts

76
00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:22,080
Speaker 2: have been largely all bark and no bite. But now

77
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,480
Speaker 2: there's been a huge chomp. So why now? What happened?

78
00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:31,360
Speaker 2: Trump has blamed entrenched federal bureaucracy or the quote unquote

79
00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:35,680
Speaker 2: deep state, for preventing him from enacting sweeping change during

80
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:39,640
Speaker 2: his first term. The obstacles Trump encountered didn't just come

81
00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,919
Speaker 2: from Congress and the courts, but rank and file government

82
00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:46,960
Speaker 2: workers who run day to day operations. Last month, the

83
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,000
Speaker 2: far right America First Policy Institute published a report titled

84
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:55,800
Speaker 2: Tales from the Swamp, How federal bureaucrats resisted President Trump.

85
00:05:56,320 --> 00:06:00,320
Speaker 2: The author, James Shrek, a former Heritage fellow, credits quote

86
00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:06,760
Speaker 2: unquote hostile career employees for quote unquote refusing to implement policies.

87
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:12,560
Speaker 2: Shrek says, quote many career employees refused or defied directives

88
00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:17,840
Speaker 2: withheld information, slow walked projects that they opposed, performed unacceptably,

89
00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:23,040
Speaker 2: and used strategic leaking to undermine the President's agenda unquote.

90
00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,359
Speaker 2: Trump himself realized this late into his first term and

91
00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:30,000
Speaker 2: sought to remedy the situation by revoking civil protections for

92
00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:34,360
Speaker 2: tens of thousands of federal career employees, reclassifying them as

93
00:06:34,400 --> 00:06:37,480
Speaker 2: at will employees under an executive order called Schedule F.

94
00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:41,320
Speaker 2: This allowed Trump to treat large swaths of government employees

95
00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:46,000
Speaker 2: as political appointments. In his article for the America First

96
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:49,920
Speaker 2: Policy Institute, Shrek refers to career removal protections as a

97
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:53,480
Speaker 2: quote modern invention that protects entrenched bureaucracy.

98
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:54,080
Speaker 3: Quote.

99
00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,640
Speaker 2: Though Biden repealed Schedule F, Trump effectively reinstated the order

100
00:06:58,720 --> 00:07:01,800
Speaker 2: on the first day of his second term. Trump promised

101
00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:05,960
Speaker 2: to restore his authority to quote remove rogue bureaucrats back

102
00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,520
Speaker 2: in early twenty twenty three under his Agenda forty seven plan,

103
00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:15,520
Speaker 2: vowing to quote wield that power very aggressively unquote. When

104
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,960
Speaker 2: Trump first ran on Drain the Swamp in twenty fifteen,

105
00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:24,000
Speaker 2: he was referring to corporate lobbyists special interests in Washington corruption,

106
00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:27,280
Speaker 2: but now the term is used to deride the so

107
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:33,120
Speaker 2: called administrative state, federal agencies, regulatory boards, and bureaucratic career

108
00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:37,200
Speaker 2: employees that maintain the basic functionality of our government. Both

109
00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:40,480
Speaker 2: Schedule F and DOGE are part of a too pronged

110
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:44,600
Speaker 2: assault on the administrative state, all in service of consolidating

111
00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:50,800
Speaker 2: then amplifying executive power. Trump has fully embraced the unitary

112
00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:54,680
Speaker 2: executive theory proposed by the likes of Russell Vaught, Project

113
00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:58,480
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five co author and the newly confirmed director

114
00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:02,280
Speaker 2: of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Although

115
00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,800
Speaker 2: it's understood that Congress has quote unquote power of the purse,

116
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,800
Speaker 2: under unitary executive theory, Trump now believes that funding appropriated

117
00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:14,160
Speaker 2: by Congress does not need to be spent. Rather, the

118
00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:18,160
Speaker 2: executive branch controls the flow of federal spending, and Congress

119
00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:21,760
Speaker 2: merely sets a ceiling on spending that the executive must

120
00:08:21,760 --> 00:08:25,960
Speaker 2: not exceed. Under this interpretation of the Constitution, the president

121
00:08:26,040 --> 00:08:29,840
Speaker 2: has sole and complete control of the executive Branch, including

122
00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,440
Speaker 2: all of its agencies and departments. But people in Trump's

123
00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,800
Speaker 2: circle like JD. Vance and Elon Musk could be pushing

124
00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,559
Speaker 2: Trump to go even further to where the president considers

125
00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:46,120
Speaker 2: both the judicial and legislative branches as purely ceremonial and advisory.

126
00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:51,000
Speaker 2: In the words of New Right philosopher Curtis Jarvin, and

127
00:08:51,320 --> 00:08:54,520
Speaker 2: arguably we are already well on our way to that point.

128
00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,440
Speaker 2: This centralized executive power allows the executive branch to achieve

129
00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:02,080
Speaker 2: goals I would have previous considered to be quite lofty.

130
00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,240
Speaker 2: And I'll outlined two of those examples, pulling from the

131
00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:09,200
Speaker 2: aspirations of the modern conservative movement. After this ad break,

132
00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:22,800
Speaker 2: welcome back to it could happen here, and get ready

133
00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:27,280
Speaker 2: to say bye bye to the FBI. Though the right

134
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,080
Speaker 2: has typically been thought to be firmly in the back

135
00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:34,040
Speaker 2: the blue camp, this isn't always the case, especially on

136
00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:37,120
Speaker 2: the more extreme end. The far right militia movement has

137
00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,080
Speaker 2: long clashed with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI

138
00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,120
Speaker 2: and ATF. In the aftermath of January sixth, many Mega

139
00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:47,880
Speaker 2: supporters found themselves at odds with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

140
00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:52,320
Speaker 2: Republican politicians began to feed into right wing uproar surrounding

141
00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:56,360
Speaker 2: the FBI, as Trump himself became a target for investigations

142
00:09:57,120 --> 00:09:59,640
Speaker 2: after the mar Lago raid. In August of twenty twenty two,

143
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 2: Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted defund the FBI. Arizona Representative Paul

144
00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,960
Speaker 2: Gosar joined in attacks on the Bureau, hosting we must

145
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:15,080
Speaker 2: destroy the FBI, we must save America. That same month,

146
00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,640
Speaker 2: right wing columnist and podcaster Liz Wheeler published in op

147
00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:22,839
Speaker 2: ed titled Abolish the FBI, which called to quote farm

148
00:10:22,920 --> 00:10:25,920
Speaker 2: out the vital functions of the FBI and raise the

149
00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:30,560
Speaker 2: rest unquote. The new right publication Compact magazine featured a

150
00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:34,640
Speaker 2: slightly better written article by the same title, Abolish the

151
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:39,040
Speaker 2: FBI at SAPAC. In March of twenty twenty three, Matt Gates,

152
00:10:39,080 --> 00:10:43,040
Speaker 2: noted pedophile advocated to get rid of the FBI among

153
00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:44,439
Speaker 2: other federal agencies.

154
00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,200
Speaker 4: Either get this government back on our side, or we

155
00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:55,559
Speaker 4: defund and get rid of Abolish the FBI, CDC, ATFDJ,

156
00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,560
Speaker 4: every last one of them if they do not come

157
00:10:58,640 --> 00:10:59,080
Speaker 4: to heal.

158
00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,320
Speaker 2: In a April of twenty twenty three, Trump joined in

159
00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:06,440
Speaker 2: in calls to defund the FBI after being charged with

160
00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:10,320
Speaker 2: thirty four felon accounts of falsipying business records. Next month,

161
00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:14,520
Speaker 2: two former FBI employees testified in a congressional hearing accusing

162
00:11:14,559 --> 00:11:18,600
Speaker 2: the bureau of weaponization against conservatives in regards to the

163
00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:23,360
Speaker 2: January sixth investigations. The same two former FBI employees who

164
00:11:23,400 --> 00:11:27,600
Speaker 2: had their security clearance revoked after espousing J six conspiracy theories.

165
00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,319
Speaker 2: Later called to quote abolish the FBI at a Heritage

166
00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:36,680
Speaker 2: Foundation symposium on the quote weaponization of the US Government

167
00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:39,400
Speaker 2: in April of twenty twenty four.

168
00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:44,360
Speaker 5: You're given that magic wand that ability to be Jim Jordan,

169
00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:44,960
Speaker 5: what would you do?

170
00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:47,720
Speaker 6: I think you have to abolish the FBI. That's where

171
00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:48,520
Speaker 6: I'm at at this point.

172
00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:53,920
Speaker 5: What now, some people are going to say, Okay, yeah,

173
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,079
Speaker 5: we're gonna have to do you just abolish a What

174
00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,120
Speaker 5: would do you Is there a replacement? I mean, you

175
00:11:58,160 --> 00:12:02,000
Speaker 5: can't just not have federal law enforcement, right. I think

176
00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:04,520
Speaker 5: in large part you could just not have federal enforces.

177
00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,200
Speaker 2: During a live episode of Donald Trump Junior's podcast on

178
00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:13,000
Speaker 2: July eighth, twenty twenty four, he called to abolish several

179
00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:16,520
Speaker 2: federal agencies, starting with the FBI, as well as the

180
00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:18,239
Speaker 2: CIA and the IRS.

181
00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:24,320
Speaker 3: Ballish the DEA. You know, I imagine of all the

182
00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:26,120
Speaker 3: places to abolish, and I don't know if that's the

183
00:12:26,160 --> 00:12:29,360
Speaker 3: best one. I'd start with the FBI, I'd start with

184
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:33,160
Speaker 3: the CIA, I'd start with the IRS. There's a lot

185
00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:36,079
Speaker 3: of you know, the DA. Now maybe I know agent

186
00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:38,319
Speaker 3: level guys. So if they're going after narcos and stuff

187
00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 3: like that, perhaps a little bit more forgiving. They don't

188
00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:42,560
Speaker 3: seem to be setting up or in trapping people like

189
00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:43,240
Speaker 3: the FBI.

190
00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:47,280
Speaker 2: The Trump administration has already begun the process to dismantle

191
00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:51,080
Speaker 2: large swaths of the FBI before Cash Mattel has even

192
00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,800
Speaker 2: been confirmed by the Senate. Eight top FBI officials have

193
00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,400
Speaker 2: been fired or forced resign by order of Acting Deputy

194
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,160
Speaker 2: Attorney General a meal, despite resistance from Acting FBI Director

195
00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:07,960
Speaker 2: Brian driscoll, a questionnaire was distributed to FBI supervisors requesting

196
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,959
Speaker 2: agents provide information pertaining to their own involvement in the

197
00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:14,640
Speaker 2: January sixth investigations. This was believed to be used for

198
00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,880
Speaker 2: the targeted removal of agency personnel. Last week, the FBI

199
00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,360
Speaker 2: handed over a list containing the information of five thousand

200
00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,240
Speaker 2: employees and agents who worked on the January sixth investigations.

201
00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 2: FBI leadership initially chose to withhold employee names. In response,

202
00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:36,400
Speaker 2: Bove accused the FBI leadership of insubordination. This was ultimately

203
00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:39,960
Speaker 2: a fruitless effort, as data seized by Elon Musk's DOGE

204
00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:44,840
Speaker 2: team could easily match employee IDs to names. Trump has

205
00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:47,920
Speaker 2: since agreed to not publicly release the names of agents

206
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,000
Speaker 2: until at least late March as lawsuits continue, and is

207
00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:55,520
Speaker 2: required to give two days notice if the administration chooses

208
00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:59,560
Speaker 2: to publicly disclose names, but individual agents are still worried.

209
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,160
Speaker 2: An anonymous letter from an FBI agent to Warren's quote. Currently,

210
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:05,600
Speaker 2: there is an effort to cull a significant number of

211
00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,400
Speaker 2: career special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation unquote.

212
00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:13,000
Speaker 2: Around one third of FBI agents were told they would

213
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,679
Speaker 2: be placed on leave, according to a government source who

214
00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:19,440
Speaker 2: spoke on the condition of anonymity, FBI employees have lost

215
00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:23,240
Speaker 2: access to systems, only to later regain access, while others

216
00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:26,360
Speaker 2: were told to wait to find out about their employee status.

217
00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:30,600
Speaker 2: Agents are now trying to negotiate back into their jobs,

218
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,120
Speaker 2: with sources saying FBI employees may be able to stay

219
00:14:34,120 --> 00:14:37,360
Speaker 2: on if they can prove their loyalty to Trump and

220
00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:41,240
Speaker 2: disown the January sixth prosecutions. I write all of this

221
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:45,360
Speaker 2: not in defense of the FBI, but to demonstrate how

222
00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:48,200
Speaker 2: far Trump is willing to go to expand his executive

223
00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,000
Speaker 2: power and transfer law enforcement duties to agencies seen as

224
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:55,440
Speaker 2: more loyal to the president. Though I doubt the FBI

225
00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:58,840
Speaker 2: will be completely abolished in the next few years, the

226
00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:03,240
Speaker 2: agency could become unrecognizable, a shell of its former self,

227
00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,760
Speaker 2: with hardline Trump loyalists replacing the existing and already largely

228
00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:13,200
Speaker 2: conservative workforce. Alternative agencies perceived as being more loyal to Trump,

229
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,960
Speaker 2: like Homeland Security investigations, could start picking up the FBI slack.

230
00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,280
Speaker 2: According to a senior government source, on day two of

231
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:26,280
Speaker 2: Trump's second term, HSI was instructed to reopen investigations into

232
00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:30,920
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty George Floyd protests to quote identify protesters

233
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:36,840
Speaker 2: BLM rioters like they did to us after January sixth, unquote.

234
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,440
Speaker 2: For another once considered far fetched goal of the conservative

235
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,320
Speaker 2: movement that now seems oddly within grasp, let's talk about

236
00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:48,360
Speaker 2: the Department of Education. Conservatives have advocated for dismantling the

237
00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:51,560
Speaker 2: Department of Education ever since Jimmy Carter signed its modern

238
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:55,840
Speaker 2: incarnation into law in nineteen seventy nine. Most notably, Ronald

239
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:59,080
Speaker 2: Reagan tried and failed to abolish the department in nineteen

240
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:04,480
Speaker 2: eighty one, but Reagan's Commission ironically strengthened support for the department.

241
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,440
Speaker 2: Once Reagan ran into roadblocks he instead sought to limit

242
00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:12,800
Speaker 2: the Department's power and influence. Since then, calls to abolish

243
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:15,400
Speaker 2: the Department of Education have been a recurring Republican talking

244
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,800
Speaker 2: point among certain think tanks and politicians, but they have

245
00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,720
Speaker 2: struggled to land sizeable blows against the department. Trump previously

246
00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:25,520
Speaker 2: fiddled around with merging the Departments of Education and Labor

247
00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:29,560
Speaker 2: during his first term, but that plan went nowhere. In

248
00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,440
Speaker 2: Trump's own Agenda forty seven plan, released in twenty twenty three,

249
00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,720
Speaker 2: he expressed his goal of quote closing up the Department

250
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:39,720
Speaker 2: of Education in Washington, d c. Later, at the National

251
00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:45,040
Speaker 2: Religious Broadcasters twenty twenty four Christian Media Convention in February

252
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:48,960
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four, Donald Trump repeated this promise quote,

253
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,720
Speaker 2: I will close the Federal Department of Education, and we

254
00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,560
Speaker 2: will move everything back to the states where it belongs,

255
00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:59,760
Speaker 2: where they can individualize education unquote. Project twenty twenty five

256
00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:02,520
Speaker 2: out lined how to achieve the effective dismantling of the

257
00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:06,520
Speaker 2: department by transferring funding and duties to other departments such

258
00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,439
Speaker 2: as Health and Human Services and the DOJ. Opposition to

259
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:13,439
Speaker 2: the Department of Education was a frequent topic at the

260
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:18,359
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Robert,

261
00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,920
Speaker 2: Sophie and I attended multiple panels and events taking aim

262
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,760
Speaker 2: at the Department, hosted by groups like Moms for Liberty

263
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,600
Speaker 2: and the Heritage Foundation. On the first day of the convention,

264
00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:32,800
Speaker 2: the party ratified their official twenty twenty four RNC platform,

265
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,520
Speaker 2: which called to quote close the Department of Education in Washington,

266
00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,600
Speaker 2: DC and send it back to the States where it

267
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:42,120
Speaker 2: belongs and let the states run our educational system as

268
00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:45,520
Speaker 2: it should be run unquote. And now the department seems

269
00:17:45,520 --> 00:17:48,600
Speaker 2: to be next on the Trump doge chopping block. The

270
00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:52,080
Speaker 2: administration is drafting a sweeping executive order. While Trump says

271
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:56,040
Speaker 2: he wants his education nominee Linda McMahon to quote unquote

272
00:17:56,280 --> 00:17:59,600
Speaker 2: put herself out of a job. The planned executive order

273
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:02,240
Speaker 2: would not just direct the Secretary of Education to begin

274
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:06,800
Speaker 2: dismantling the department, but also ask Congress for assistance in

275
00:18:07,119 --> 00:18:11,000
Speaker 2: formally abolishing the agency. It's unlikely that Trump would get

276
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,920
Speaker 2: the sixty Senate votes needed to pass the quote unquote

277
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,560
Speaker 2: necessary legislation, but even if they can't manage to technically

278
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 2: abolish the department, he could still try to rip it

279
00:18:21,520 --> 00:18:25,600
Speaker 2: scuts out, slash spending, and forcibly resign or fire employees,

280
00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,639
Speaker 2: basically make the department simply non functioning, much like what

281
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 2: Doge did to USAID. Upwards of sixteen DOGE staffers are

282
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:38,560
Speaker 2: currently listed in the Education Department directory. Federal education employees

283
00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:42,000
Speaker 2: have already received the Fork in the Road resignation buyout offer,

284
00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:46,280
Speaker 2: while others have been fired for alleged links to DEI.

285
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:50,760
Speaker 2: Without someone like Elon Musk and Trump's administration, there was

286
00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,800
Speaker 2: no clear path towards implementing some of the more lofty

287
00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,200
Speaker 2: plans proposed by conservative thought leaders, whether they be Trump's

288
00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,880
Speaker 2: own Agenda forty seven, the Heritage Foundation's Project twenty twenty five,

289
00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:05,639
Speaker 2: or Curtis Yarvin's dream of a national CEO king. Only

290
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:11,639
Speaker 2: Elon Musk could do this. You need someone with his influence, connections, money, experience,

291
00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:15,879
Speaker 2: and knowledge of fringe neo reactionary Silicon Valley political theory

292
00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:20,320
Speaker 2: to propose and carry out something like Doge. So how

293
00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,880
Speaker 2: did Musk get here? Though it's common knowledge that Musk

294
00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:27,280
Speaker 2: has drifted pretty severely right word the past five years

295
00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,639
Speaker 2: leading into the twenty twenty four presidential campaign, he was

296
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,959
Speaker 2: not an out and proud Trump supporter. As recently as

297
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,280
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, Musk deemed Trump too old to serve

298
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:39,879
Speaker 2: as president, again, tweeting that it was time for Trump

299
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,600
Speaker 2: to quote hang up his hat and sail into the

300
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,960
Speaker 2: sunset unquote. Initially, Musk threw his support behind the doomed

301
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:50,800
Speaker 2: presidential bid of Florida Governor Ron De Santis, but as

302
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:53,800
Speaker 2: it became clear Trump would be the Republican nominee, Musk

303
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,720
Speaker 2: fell in behind his new party line, but his implicit

304
00:19:57,760 --> 00:20:00,879
Speaker 2: support of Trump was kept on the down low. The

305
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:02,960
Speaker 2: two met in Florida in March of twenty twenty four

306
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,879
Speaker 2: among other wealthy Republican donors, as Trump was lobbying for

307
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:10,399
Speaker 2: campaign funding. The New York Times reported that Musk did

308
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:13,200
Speaker 2: not want to publicly endorse Trump as of early twenty

309
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:16,359
Speaker 2: twenty four, telling friends the most he would do was

310
00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:20,920
Speaker 2: an anti Biden endorsement. Instead of public support, Musk would

311
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:24,080
Speaker 2: create his own super pack to secretly help get Trump elected,

312
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:27,640
Speaker 2: timing payments so his fiscal backing of Trump's campaign could

313
00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:31,640
Speaker 2: only go public after the election. But all that changed

314
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:36,680
Speaker 2: on July thirteenth, after Trump's brush with death in Butler, Pennsylvania,

315
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 2: Musk seemingly took Trump's call of fight Fight Fight to heart,

316
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:44,800
Speaker 2: tweeting less than an hour later, quote I fully endorse

317
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,520
Speaker 2: President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery unquote. This

318
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,880
Speaker 2: opened more frequent communication between Musk and Trump. Later that weekend,

319
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 2: both Musk and Peter Teel called Trump to recommend J. D.

320
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,879
Speaker 2: Vance as vice president. Next week was the Republican National Convention,

321
00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:06,120
Speaker 2: during which Elon Musk was frequently name dropped, both by

322
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:10,600
Speaker 2: official speakers and regular attendees talked about as almost some

323
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:14,920
Speaker 2: kind of mythic right wing superhero. On the final day

324
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,000
Speaker 2: of the convention, rumors circulated that Musk himself would make

325
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,879
Speaker 2: a surprise appearance on stage, Though said rumors did not

326
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,560
Speaker 2: come to fruition. Musk's specter haunted the entirety of the RNC.

327
00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:32,000
Speaker 2: Come August, Musk just finished overhauling leadership at his America

328
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:35,960
Speaker 2: Super Pack and was rigorously pushing pro Trump messaging on

329
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:40,639
Speaker 2: X the Everything app. On August twelfth, Musk hosted Trump

330
00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:43,480
Speaker 2: in a two hour live streamed phone call dubbed in

331
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:48,560
Speaker 2: x Space. This conversation marked the first time Trump casually

332
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,600
Speaker 2: spoke at length about the assassination attempt The pair also

333
00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:56,879
Speaker 2: discussed quote unquote migrant crime and the need to eliminate

334
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 2: federal bureaucracy. Trump gave a rare compliment to Musk, calling

335
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,760
Speaker 2: him the greatest cutter, followed up by saying, quote, I

336
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 2: need an Elon Musk. I need someone that has a

337
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:12,000
Speaker 2: lot of strength and courage and smarts. I want to

338
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:14,840
Speaker 2: close up the Department of Education, move education back to

339
00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:19,000
Speaker 2: the States unquote. News outlets were more interested in reporting

340
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 2: on the stream's technical glitches rather than Musk's idea for

341
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:27,919
Speaker 2: a government efficiency commission, to which Trump responded very positively.

342
00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 2: Next month, on September fourth, Trump announced that, at the

343
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 2: suggestion of Elon Musk, if elected, he would quote create

344
00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:40,160
Speaker 2: a government Efficiency Commission, tasked with conducting a complete financial

345
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 2: and performance audit of the entire federal government and making

346
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:48,720
Speaker 2: recommendations for drastic reforms unquote. Musk himself agreed to be

347
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 2: appointed head of the commission, aiming to cut trillions of dollars.

348
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:56,840
Speaker 2: This announcement was not taken very seriously. The New York

349
00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,239
Speaker 2: Times called commissions such as this quote a favor at

350
00:23:00,359 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 2: Washington's solution for delaying dealing with hard problems unquote, and

351
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 2: The Times later reported that the Commission quote can issue

352
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 2: recommendations around federal funding and regulations, but will be powerless

353
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:15,399
Speaker 2: to enact them without executive actions by mister Trump or

354
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:20,159
Speaker 2: funding approval by Congress unquote. Even I can admit that

355
00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 2: both myself and some of my coworkers underestimated Doge's ability

356
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:28,800
Speaker 2: to physically carry out Musk's suggestions with no Congressional oversight

357
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,680
Speaker 2: or authority. As the election ramped up, musk super Pac

358
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 2: mobilized thousands of canvassers across key swing states and collected

359
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,960
Speaker 2: data to target both enthusiastic and unlikely voters. Throughout twenty

360
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 2: twenty four, Musk spent over two hundred and ninety million

361
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:49,479
Speaker 2: dollars in contributions in support of the mega campaign, mostly

362
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 2: via his own super pack. On October fifth, Musk made

363
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,200
Speaker 2: his first appearance at an official campaign event, joining Trump

364
00:23:56,240 --> 00:24:00,440
Speaker 2: for his return to Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk continued to appear

365
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,840
Speaker 2: at Trump rallies in the month leading up to the election.

366
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:07,200
Speaker 2: By election day, Musk was firmly in Trump's inner circle,

367
00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:10,560
Speaker 2: spending Election night and most of the next week with

368
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 2: President elect Trump at mar A Lago. After this adbreak,

369
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:17,400
Speaker 2: we will return to discuss how Elon Musk is now

370
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 2: trying to become the CEO of the United States of America. Okay,

371
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 2: we are back, and now a few months after the election,

372
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,640
Speaker 2: Elon Musk is doing to the United States exactly what

373
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 2: he did to Twitter. By the end, it still might

374
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 2: technically function on some level, just worse in every way,

375
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,919
Speaker 2: prone to glitches and full of Nazis. The previous version

376
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 2: was already bad and harmful, but the new one somehow

377
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:56,560
Speaker 2: sucks even more and no longer has the aspects that

378
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:00,159
Speaker 2: made it semi worth while. The fork in when the

379
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 2: Road deferred resignation letters sent to government employees used the

380
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 2: exact same title as a similar email sent to Twitter

381
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:12,080
Speaker 2: employees after Musk bought the company. The Doge team has

382
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,640
Speaker 2: installed sofa beds on the fifth floor of the headquarters

383
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,800
Speaker 2: of the Office of Personnel Management to enable working around

384
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:23,640
Speaker 2: the clock, mirroring Musk's previous actions. During his takeover of Twitter,

385
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 2: Musk has brought on some of the same exact people

386
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,400
Speaker 2: who helped him take over Twitter, all of whom are

387
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 2: now special government employees with odd job titles but immense power.

388
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,359
Speaker 2: It was reported and Wired that a Musk stooge told

389
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: General Services Administration workers that the agency will now pursue

390
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 2: quote an AI first strategy unquote, and that the GSA

391
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:53,440
Speaker 2: should operate like a quote unquote startup software company. Musk

392
00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:57,000
Speaker 2: has ordered the General Services Administration to terminate leases for

393
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,560
Speaker 2: all roughly seven thousand and five hundred five offices, amidst

394
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 2: a national call to return to in person work. This

395
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 2: again is a classic Musk move, taken from his takeover

396
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 2: of Twitter, in which to cut costs, he refused to

397
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,920
Speaker 2: pay rent for Twitter offices in London, New York City,

398
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:19,240
Speaker 2: and San Francisco while the buildings were still in use.

399
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 2: A current GSA employee was quoted and wired as saying, quote,

400
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 2: they are acting like this is a takeover of a

401
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 2: tech company unquote. Musk's own personal success hasn't been from

402
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 2: his skill as an inventor or a software engineer. What

403
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 2: he's a proficient at is taking over corporations and molding

404
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 2: them in his image. This is what happened to Tesla,

405
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 2: SpaceX and Twitter. In twenty twenty. Musk called the federal

406
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 2: government quote the ultimate corporation unquote, and now he seeks

407
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:56,400
Speaker 2: to become CEO. In doing this, Musk is following the

408
00:26:56,440 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 2: tech industry motto of move fast and break things. So

409
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 2: far all his actions bypass Congress, the slow controller of

410
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 2: stable government, having everything be done via executive order and

411
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 2: doge helps to speed run a full reboot of the

412
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 2: administrative state. The motto of the old government may as

413
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:20,040
Speaker 2: well have been move slow and build things. Progress is slow,

414
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:24,240
Speaker 2: but detonation is fast. The breakage of government isn't a

415
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,440
Speaker 2: mere side effect or a bug of this expediated form

416
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:31,040
Speaker 2: of rule. It's a feature to reshape the government into

417
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 2: their ideal technocracy. First, breaking things is a requirement. They

418
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,040
Speaker 2: might not get away with all of it, and they

419
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,680
Speaker 2: don't need to. They're doing so much so fast, knowing

420
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 2: that they will only get away with some of it.

421
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 2: But with new Supreme Court approved presidential immunity and unlimited

422
00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:50,720
Speaker 2: pardon power, they can try as much as they want

423
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 2: with zero consequence. These are not the moves you would

424
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,720
Speaker 2: make if you wanted a stable government. It's the moves

425
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 2: you would make as a new tech company, which is

426
00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 2: why Musk's operation is masked with the Silicon Valley language

427
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 2: of efficiency. The inefficiencies of government are part of the point.

428
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,959
Speaker 2: That's what creates stability makes the country a trusted ally

429
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 2: and gives the dollar value. Quote. Regulations can be bothersome

430
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:22,240
Speaker 2: sometimes and downright problematic, but that's kind of the point.

431
00:28:22,800 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 2: They act as a control on imprecise and rushed decision making.

432
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 2: If the cost of doing business is slowing down the process,

433
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 2: that's the cost that has to be made to quote

434
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 2: a government employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

435
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:42,720
Speaker 2: But those inefficiencies and pesky regulations really irritate the Silicon

436
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: Valley tech bros who think they are the smartest people

437
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:48,880
Speaker 2: on the planet. It's their view that since they're so smart,

438
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 2: shouldn't they run the country. Musk has a personal interest

439
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 2: in slashing the regulatory state, as it interferes with his

440
00:28:56,280 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 2: own businesses and dreams of space colonization. Last year, Musk

441
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 2: claimed that Doge quote was the only path to extending

442
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 2: life beyond Earth unquote. The White House Press Secretary has

443
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 2: said that Musk himself will determine when there is a

444
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 2: conflict of interest involving his businesses and Doge. SpaceX alone

445
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,760
Speaker 2: has received fifteen point four billion dollars in government contracts,

446
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 2: according to The New York Times. The large reduction in

447
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 2: the federal workforce through the combined efforts of DOGE and

448
00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 2: Schedule F. There is an irrefutable similarity to a plan

449
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:39,360
Speaker 2: outlined by New Right blogger Curtis Jarvin, Peter Teel's favorite philosopher.

450
00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,720
Speaker 2: Last year, Robert Evans did a behind the Bastards on

451
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 2: Curtis Yarvin, and you should absolutely check that out for

452
00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 2: more information. In twenty twenty two, Yarvin outlined how a

453
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 2: second Trump term could quote unquote reboot the United States government.

454
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 2: This plan amounts to a corporate takeover of government, which

455
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,280
Speaker 2: subsequently re shapes the structure of government, akin to a corporation.

456
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,400
Speaker 2: Though in Yarvin's mind, it is not President Trump who

457
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,520
Speaker 2: assumes the role of CEO. Instead, the President acts as

458
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,560
Speaker 2: chairman of the board, and before inauguration should select a

459
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:20,600
Speaker 2: CEO who is an experienced executive. This appointed CEO could

460
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 2: then quote run the executive branch without any interference from

461
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,840
Speaker 2: Congress or the courts, to quote Jarvin, while President Trump

462
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 2: reviews the CEO's performance in the background, Jarvin writes, quote,

463
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 2: most existing important institutions, public and private, will be shut

464
00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 2: down and replaced with new and efficient systems. Trump will

465
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 2: be monitoring this CEO's performance on TV and can fire

466
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 2: him if need be. Unquote. Musk may believe that he

467
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 2: has successfully maneuvered Trump into appointing him CEO, but Trump

468
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,200
Speaker 2: could be well aware of Musk's ambitions, but is keeping

469
00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: him around as an emergency patsy, ready to fire when needed.

470
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 2: The Trump admin is currently testing the limits of presidential authority,

471
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 2: and once those limits get surpassed by the standards of

472
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 2: Senate Republicans, Musk is the easiest guy to blame and

473
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 2: push out of the administration's inner circle. The first step

474
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,360
Speaker 2: in Yarvin's plan has the Trump campaign running on centralizing

475
00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 2: executive power to eliminate government inefficiency. This was both in

476
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 2: line with Project twenty twenty five and Musk's suggestion of

477
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 2: an efficiency commission once Trump gets into office. The plan

478
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:40,000
Speaker 2: is as follows. Purge bureaucracy what Yarvin calls rage retire

479
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:44,840
Speaker 2: all government employees. This is essentially being carried out by

480
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,640
Speaker 2: doge schedule left and by just pressuring career employees to

481
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 2: accept deferred resignation offers. By threatening future mass layoffs, senior

482
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,720
Speaker 2: level officials have been replaced by a batch of loyal

483
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 2: tech oligarchs with links to and Peter Teel. The stupidity

484
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 2: of Doge was almost a secret weapon. The cryptocurrency meanness

485
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 2: made everyone in respectable society not take the idea seriously.

486
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:15,000
Speaker 2: What's the worst an advisory commission could do with no

487
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 2: power to enforce its suggestions. Oops. Another step in Yarvin's

488
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 2: plan is to nullify elite institutions of power like the

489
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 2: media and academia. Musk's takeover of Twitter has gone a

490
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:34,120
Speaker 2: long way in altering the country's information ecosystem. The Trump

491
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:37,200
Speaker 2: adman seems to be utilizing Steve Bannon's flood the Zone

492
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 2: strategy to distract and exhaust the media, as well as

493
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 2: more directed attacks. On January thirty, first, the Department of

494
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 2: Defense kicked out NBC News, The New York Times, NPR,

495
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:52,760
Speaker 2: and Politico from their in house press offices and replace

496
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 2: them with one American News, The New York Post, Brightbart

497
00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:02,400
Speaker 2: and huff Post. Under from Doge, the White House has

498
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 2: ordered government agencies to cancel subscriptions to policy news services

499
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,719
Speaker 2: from multiple news outlets. A White House advisor told Axios, quote,

500
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:13,880
Speaker 2: the eye of sourn is on more than just Politico.

501
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 2: It's all the media unquote. In terms of attacks on academia,

502
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:23,840
Speaker 2: the federal grant freeze has had devastating effects on university research.

503
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 2: Another step in Yarvin's plan is to co opt Congress

504
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,920
Speaker 2: and ignore the courts. This is where we are at

505
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,600
Speaker 2: right now. The goal is to reduce both the judicial

506
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:39,880
Speaker 2: and legislative branches to being purely ceremonial and advisory, as

507
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 2: advocated by Yarvin. So far, the Trump administration has effectively

508
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 2: sidestepped the legislative bodies via Elon Musk and Doge. It's

509
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 2: highly unlikely Trump would ever be impeached or removed by

510
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 2: this Congress. Furthermore, this Congress seems to have willfully given

511
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,960
Speaker 2: up on their power over the federal budget. To quote

512
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 2: senior government official quote, the real challenge is that Congress

513
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:08,360
Speaker 2: is on board for now in losing their own budgetary authority.

514
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 2: So far, a loan security guard standing outside you, sayed

515
00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 2: and the Department of Education has been enough to deter

516
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:19,239
Speaker 2: resistance from the Democratic Party. Last week, I interviewed to

517
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 2: Derek Black, a constitutional law professor at the University of

518
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 2: South Carolina. The full interview will air tomorrow, but here's

519
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:29,279
Speaker 2: his short take on the current situation.

520
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 1: When Congress is willing to hand the keys over to

521
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 1: the president, then we really no longer really have a democracy,

522
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,279
Speaker 1: or at least the constitutional democracy that was created, you know,

523
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 1: a couple centuries ago. So the bigger danger, I think

524
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: is that through law itself, Congress sedes more and more

525
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 1: power to the president with a new legislation. So if

526
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: Congress were to pass new legislation giving the president more

527
00:34:55,640 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 1: centralized power, well that would be a concerning thing to

528
00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 1: me right now.

529
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 2: The real road block is the courts. The Trump administration

530
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 2: has already displayed a willingness to ignore the courts, based

531
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:09,720
Speaker 2: on the continued halting of federal spending and grants despite

532
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:13,480
Speaker 2: an order from a US district judge. The Justice Department

533
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 2: has argued that the order to resume funding quote contains

534
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 2: several ambiguous terms and provisions that could be read to

535
00:35:20,239 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 2: constitute significant intrusions on the executive branch's lawful authorities and

536
00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:29,680
Speaker 2: the separation of powers unquote. This past weekend, Musk raged

537
00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 2: against a federal judge who ordered to temporarily restrict doja's

538
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,280
Speaker 2: access to Treasury Department data. Both Musk and the White

539
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,839
Speaker 2: House have labeled the judge an activist with White House

540
00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 2: spokesperson Harrison Fields calling the order quote absurd and judicial

541
00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 2: overreach unquote. On x the Everything app, Musk boosted claims

542
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 2: calling this a judicial coup and shared an announcement from

543
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:59,440
Speaker 2: California Representative darryl Isa to introduce legislation to quote unquote

544
00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 2: stop these rogue judges. But even without added legislation, Musk

545
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 2: and the Trump administration are gearing up to directly defy

546
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 2: judicial authority. On Saturday, Musk shared a tweet reading, I

547
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 2: don't like the president it sets when you defy a

548
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,120
Speaker 2: judicial ruling, But I'm just wondering what other options are

549
00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 2: these judges leaving us if they're going to blatantly disregard

550
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:27,000
Speaker 2: the Constitution for their own partisan political goals unquote. And

551
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:30,600
Speaker 2: on Sunday, Vice President J. D Vance posted a statement

552
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,399
Speaker 2: undermining judicial power. Quote. If a judge tried to tell

553
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,160
Speaker 2: a general how to conduct a military operation, that would

554
00:36:37,200 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 2: be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney

555
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 2: general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor,

556
00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 2: that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control executive's legitimate

557
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 2: power unquote. So now it all comes down to force

558
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:57,319
Speaker 2: if the executive branch not just ignores judicial authority but

559
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 2: blatantly defies it, who would be left to enforce the

560
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,359
Speaker 2: power of the court. That leads us to another step

561
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 2: in Yarvin's plan, centralize the police, nationalize local law enforcement

562
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 2: to place them under federal control. Trump has flirted with

563
00:37:13,160 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 2: his tactic in the past, when he deputized Washington police

564
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:19,800
Speaker 2: as US marshals to kill Michael Rhinol In twenty twenty,

565
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,319
Speaker 2: DOGE staff threatened to call us marshals when you say

566
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,040
Speaker 2: to security officials who have since been fired, denied them

567
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 2: access to classified systems. Jarvin believes this step is paramount quote.

568
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 2: Support of the democratic public is a cipher. I think

569
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:39,280
Speaker 2: that actually all you need is command of the police unquote,

570
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 2: if you have all of the guys with guns who

571
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:46,720
Speaker 2: can physically stop you. Support from the public doesn't hurt, though,

572
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:50,760
Speaker 2: and if things get tricky, Trump could employ the next

573
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:56,759
Speaker 2: step in Yarvin's plan. Mobilize populist support. But crucially, don't

574
00:37:56,800 --> 00:37:59,360
Speaker 2: wait until you're at your weakest at the end of

575
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 2: your term after losing an election under popular mandate. Deploy

576
00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 2: your empowered supporters at the height of your powers to

577
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:11,040
Speaker 2: oppose any obstruction from government agencies or the courts, Trump

578
00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 2: may weaponize a Supreme Court ordained presidential immunity and his

579
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 2: unrestricted pardon power to make any willing actor carry out

580
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:22,839
Speaker 2: his bidding with zero risk of legal consequence. Now, even

581
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:26,480
Speaker 2: if Trump himself isn't aware of Yarvin's plan, his vice

582
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:30,400
Speaker 2: president certainly is. On a far right podcast in twenty

583
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:34,280
Speaker 2: twenty one, JD. Vance laid out a very similar vision

584
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,800
Speaker 2: for a second Trump term, using what the Peter Teel

585
00:38:37,840 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 2: protege described as a dewocification program to purge bureaucracy.

586
00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,080
Speaker 7: I think Trump is going to run again in twenty

587
00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 7: twenty four. I think he'll probably win again in twenty

588
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,600
Speaker 7: twenty four. I think that what Trump should do, like

589
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 7: if I was giving him one piece of advice, fire

590
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 7: every single mid level bureaucrat, every civil sermon in the

591
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 7: administrative state, replace them with our people. And when the courts,

592
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 7: because you will get taken to court. And then when

593
00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,240
Speaker 7: the courts stop, you stand before the country like Andrew

594
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 7: Jackson did, and say the Chief Justice has made his ruling,

595
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:08,799
Speaker 7: now let him enforce it.

596
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 2: Jarvin writes that the initial goal of this new administration

597
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:17,720
Speaker 2: should not be simply to govern, but to quote figure

598
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:21,239
Speaker 2: out what the Trump administration can actually do when it

599
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:24,719
Speaker 2: assumes the full constitutional power is given to the chief

600
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:29,560
Speaker 2: executive of the executive branch unquote. What the administration can

601
00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 2: do once they fully seize this power is so incredibly vast.

602
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 2: Without checks and balances, all those crazy things Trump tried

603
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:40,200
Speaker 2: to do during his first term would be a lot

604
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:43,560
Speaker 2: easier to enact, let alone, whatever Musk and the tech

605
00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 2: oligarchs want out of the United States incorporated. But that's

606
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:51,160
Speaker 2: a whole separate topic. The current fight determines the degree

607
00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:54,880
Speaker 2: to which this power is seized, and Jarvin notes the

608
00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:56,640
Speaker 2: importance of going all the way.

609
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 3: Quote.

610
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,000
Speaker 2: When Trump in twenty seventeen took office, he took about

611
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 2: zero point zero one percent of power. If Trump in

612
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one wants to have more than zero point

613
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 2: zero zero one percent of power, the only way he

614
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:16,799
Speaker 2: can do it is to take one hundred percent, take

615
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 2: it all at once, completely legally. The real Donald J.

616
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 2: Trump would never have the guts to even think of

617
00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 2: doing this, and he's just too old unquote funny pessimism

618
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 2: from Jarvin. There, all of this doesn't even need to

619
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:37,120
Speaker 2: benefit average Trump supporters because Trump's main campaign promise wasn't

620
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 2: mass deportations, fixing the economy, or abolishing the Department of Education.

621
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:47,960
Speaker 2: It was retribution as extremism. Analyst Jared Holt notes, quote,

622
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:50,960
Speaker 2: the right got its base so hooked on the idea

623
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,879
Speaker 2: of revenge. He doesn't even need to pretend that any

624
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 2: of this benefits their base in any tangible way. They

625
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,359
Speaker 2: just have to say it hurts the wrong people, and

626
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 2: that satisfies them. Unquote. If Trump and Musk continue to

627
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 2: get their way, it could take years to fix. But

628
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 2: the past ten years have shown us you can't really

629
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 2: return to normal. There probably is no going back. The

630
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:19,640
Speaker 2: options are to hunker down and play it slow and

631
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 2: try to survive whatever happens in the next two to

632
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 2: four years while offering passive resistance, or we accelerate to

633
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 2: whatever comes next, put cards on the table, trigger a

634
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 2: kinetic confrontation, and fully manifest the results of this constitutional crisis.

635
00:41:37,080 --> 00:41:41,680
Speaker 2: We are dealing with managing crumbles versus a full system's collapse.

636
00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 2: Sad face emoji.

637
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 6: It could happen. Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

638
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 6: For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website.

639
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:57,120
Speaker 6: Coolzonmedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

640
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 6: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can

641
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 6: now find sources for it could happen here, listed directly

642
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:05,440
Speaker 6: in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening,