Elon's X army takes the wheel
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Elon Musk is enlisting the help of his X army as he seeks to hack away at the U.S. government, responding directly to users who recommend specific cuts and posting an X poll to justify reinstating a staffer who resigned over racist tweets.
Why it matters: Now the most powerful bureaucrat in America, Musk is leaning not only on access to sensitive government systems but also on his legions of fervently loyal, often-anonymous X followers as he weighs the fate of billions of dollars in spending.
The big picture: Donald Trump broke new ground in his first term by carrying out the nation's business via tweet decrees.
- Musk, who typically posts between 50 and 100 tweets per day, is taking the bottom-up approach by letting foot soldiers supply suggestions that get seen — and acted on — by his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Driving the news: Last weekend, Musk elevated posts decrying USAID uses of money in his push to gut the agency. Then on Monday, he declared that Trump "agreed" to shut it down.
- Media became a target when users initially claimed erroneously that Politico had received millions from USAID. In fact, federal agencies were paying for subscriptions to specialized Politico products.
- After users shared screenshots highlighting that spending, Musk agreed it was "wasteful." Within a few hours the White House announced the Politico subscriptions were being canceled.
- DOGE has since announced that subscriptions with the New York Times and other outlets are being scrapped.
Targeting the National Endowment for Democracy, Musk solicited ammunition from X users, asking them to "reply to this post listing all the evil things that NED has done."
- In responding to a user who complained about the IRS's Direct File system, Musk wrote "That group has been deleted." Similarly, he wrote "deleted" in responding to a critical post about one of the General Services Administration's programs.
- He has been reposting users' screenshots of line items in the government's budget as well.
- Some of the recommended cuts are hyper-specific. After FlexPort CEO Ryan Petersen tweeted that DOGE should "look into" the U.S. Mint in San Francisco, Musk swiftly replied "noted."
The latest: After the WSJ uncovered blatantly racist tweets apparently written by one key DOGE staffer, Marko Elez, the White House announced Elez had resigned.
- Then X users responding to Musk's poll (including Vice President Vance) overwhelmingly supported reinstating him, and Musk announced he'd be back.
- A spokesperson for DOGE did not respond to a request for comment.
Zoom out: The X activism has extended beyond Musk's cost-cutting mission to law enforcement.
- Musk found an ally in Ed Martin, a Trump supporter and interim U.S. Attorney of District of Columbia.
- After a weekend of reports about DOGE staffers' standoffs with Treasury and USAID — with Musk contending it was a crime to identify members of his team — Martin released a letter calling for the protection of DOGE workers.
- Replying to a post calling for Martin to "look into" progressive commentator Will Stancil, Martin replied, "Thank you. Noted."
Friction point: Trump appears on course to getting all of his most controversial Cabinet picks confirmed — with the exception of Matt Gaetz — due in no small part to the pressure campaign waged by Musk and the right-wing digital chorus on X.
- Senators who had wavered on some of the picks — Sen. Joni Ernst for Pete Hegseth, Sen. Bill Cassidy for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Todd Young for Tulsi Gabbard — all came around after being harangued online and inundated with threats of primary campaigns.
Flashback: Musk has a history of crowdsourcing ideas for his businesses, and of posting prolifically on Twitter long before he bought it.
Now, his posting habit is intertwined with his mission of slashing billions in government funding and waging digital war on Trump's behalf.
