Episode 15: Project 2025 in Action: How Musk and DOGE Are Breaking the System by Design

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency—DOGE—has become the engine behind a hostile takeover of the U.S. federal government. Guided by the radical Project 2025 blueprint, Musk and Trump are orchestrating a full-scale dismantling of America’s public institutions under the guise of "efficiency."

In Part Three of our six-part Musk series, Bella Goode unpacks how DOGE operates as a power-consolidation machine—firing career public servants, shuttering agencies, and replacing civil governance with political loyalty and chaos. From AI-generated layoff lists to Starlink-run air traffic control, this episode shows how Musk's Silicon Valley playbook is being used to break democracy—by design.

In This Episode:

• The DOGE Workforce Purge – How Russell Vought and the Project 2025 plan created the legal and ideological framework to fire civil servants and replace them with Trump loyalists.
• Musk’s Government Takeover – Why Musk was the perfect disruptor to lead DOGE—and how he used startup tactics and unchecked power to reshape Washington.
• The DOGE Team Leads – A rogue squad of under-30 technocrats and crypto-bros now enforcing loyalty tests and mass layoffs inside federal agencies.
• Privatizing the Bureaucracy – The FAA under Starlink, budget cuts by crowdsourcing, and government functions handed over to Musk’s allies and corporate interests.
• Blue Choir Voices – Everyday Americans reflect on Musk’s growing control. Is he a genius—or a threat to democracy?
• Real Lives, Real Fallout – Visits to communities hit hardest by DOGE, including Social Security office closures and the collapse of essential services.

Next Episode

Episode 16 – The Aftermath: Fallout from Musk’s Government Takeover

We track the chaos unleashed by DOGE—lawsuits, institutional collapse, and rising public resistance. What did Musk and Trump break—and can it be undone?

Transcript

Bella Goode  00:04

Hey everyone, and welcome to Surviving Trump. I'm Bella Goode, and today we're diving deeper into the dangerous new shape of American governance, one that's being molded by Elon Musk from the inside out. In this third episode of our six part series on Musk's growing influence, we're focusing on his leadership of DOGE the Department of Government Efficiency. 

Now, typically, I call it DOG-E, but that's really an injustice to our canine friends. In this episode, we'll be breaking down how DOGE came to be, how it's dismantling the federal government from the inside out and how Musk's tech driven tactics, including AI generated layoff lists, are leading to real world consequences. We'll explore who's behind the DOGE operation, how it's being used to centralize power under Trump and Musk, and how its reckless execution is already putting Americans at risk from Social Security disruptions to deadly weather events made worse by a gutted NOAA. That's the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and they monitor our weather. 

So in our last episode, we dissected Elon Musk as a paradoxical figure, both a genius, visionary and an erratic, fear driven leader. His groundbreaking advancements in EVs, electrical vehicles, space exploration and AI have reshaped industries, but his management style, impulsivity and political influence have raised serious ethical and security concerns with his acquisition of Twitter, which is now, of course X, Musk cemented his role as a political power player, allegedly manipulating algorithms to favor Trump's 2024 election bid. His reputation now hangs in the balance. Will he be remembered as a revolutionary thinker or as a reckless disrupter. We'll break it all down in today's episode. At the core of Trump and Musk's effort to dismantle the federal government is project 2025 a sweeping blueprint for consolidating executive power, gutting federal agencies and eliminating career civil servants who are seen as obstacles to Trump's agenda. 

This plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation and spearheaded by Russell Vought, we talked about him back in episode 12, anyway, Vought has provided the ideological and logistical framework for what is now unfolding under the Department of Government Efficiency, otherwise known as DOG-E. But now the Director of Office of Management and Budget under Trump has long been the mastermind behind the efforts to weaken the so called Deep State by slashing the federal workforce. Now as the architect of the workforce optimization plan, he is using the authority of DOGE to carry out what project 2025 calls restoring presidential control by stripping away the independence of federal agencies. Soon after Trump was inaugurated, Vought alongside of Charles Ezell, the Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management issued a sweeping directive to all federal agencies. 

The memo instructed agencies to begin mass layoffs, office closures and organizational overhauls by March 13, 2025 the goal shrink the government to a size that Trump and Musk could personally control, eliminating resistance from career professionals and replacing them with political loyalists. The plan's first major initiative was a series of mass reductions in force, otherwise known as RIFs, requiring agencies to identify and eliminate as many positions as possible, especially those not explicitly required by statute, nonessential personnel were to be terminated immediately using expedited processes and parallel processing methods to accelerate the purge. This directive echoed a key tenant of project 2025 making it easier to fire civil servants who were deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration. 

But DOGE wasn't just targeting individuals. Entire agencies were being dismantled or restructured, and it's still going on. The Social Security Administration, Medicare and Veterans Affairs all saw field offices marked foreclosure, cutting off services to millions. The State Department was ordered to shrink by 20% shutting down embassies and consulates around the world, mirroring Project 2025's call to reorient American foreign policy towards America First isolism. The FAA was even directed to replace Verizon's air traffic control network with Starlink, an untested and privately owned system that directly benefits Musk. To ensure these cuts were permanent. The directive enforced a hiring freeze and a strict four to one firing ratio. Agencies could not hire a new employee unless four others were fired first. This was a deliberate effort to erode the professional bureaucracy and prevent future administrations from restoring lost positions. Hiring exemptions were only granted if approved by DOGE and Trump's appointees, centralizing control over the federal workforce in the hands of Musk's team. 

The second phase of the plan, scheduled for April 14, called for additional restructuring. Agencies are required to submit plans to further consolidate operations with a strong push to relocate federal offices outside of Washington DC, a move designed to weaken the power of career civil servants and bureaucratic oversight. Yet not all government employees were at risk. Of course, law enforcement agencies, immigration enforcement and border security personnel were exempt from the layoffs. Similarly, Musk's DOGE team, the White House staff and other Trump loyalists, were shielded from termination. This ensured that while the government was being gutted, its ability to enforce Trump's political agenda remained intact at its core DOGE's workforce purge is the implementation of project 2025, in real time. 

What began as a policy proposal has become a full scale dismantling of the federal government, allowing Trump and Musk to consolidate Power remove institutional resistance and reshape the country's governing structure into one that operates solely in their interest. Republican lawmakers who personally lobby Musk they can secure exemptions for their districts, while Democrats and the millions of Americans who rely on federal programs were left powerless against the cuts. This is not just a bureaucratic shake up. It's an ideological coup designed to permanently reshape how the US government functions. So when Trump returned to office, he wasted no time making his plan a reality. He created the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and put Elon Musk in charge. The mission, slash government spending, fire career officials and reshape federal agencies to serve Trump's interests. 

Musk, with his history of breaking rules and thriving in chaos, he was the perfect fit. Elon Musk didn't just join the government. He took it over. Unlike traditional agency heads, he didn't have to go through a state confirmation process. There were no- there was no vetting, there were no checks, no balances. He was handed a blank check to do as he pleased, and he treated DOGE like another one of his startups. His first move, bring in a team of loyalists to help execute his vision. But this wasn't your typical group of government bureaucrats. Musk surrounded himself with a mix of Silicon Valley elites and a cadre of young, irreverent staffers, many of whom had little to no experience in government. This was a team built for disruption, not for administration. 

So what are Americans saying, as all this is unfolding? Are we deer in the headlights? What's the reaction been? So I asked my Blue Choir, it's the rotating panel of everyday people who care about saving democracy. I asked what they really think about Musk's rise to power. Is he a genius pushing civilization forward, or is he a volatile force playing with fire? Here's a sampling of what they had to say. So one anonymous tech worker told me "Musk's leadership style spreads like wildfire. In tech, we call it The Founders Effect. People imitate the boss to survive, and when the boss has no peace of mind, no ethics, and sees people as expendable, that bleeds into every system he touches. I've worked under that kind of leadership. It's toxic, and it scales." Hmm, interesting. 

Sue, who follows Musk closelyadded, "He's bright, but he's moving way too fast, and now he's influencing everything from the FBI to Social Security. He believes in his own brilliance, but that speed without preparation, is already crashing down on us with these DOGE firings. People are protesting across the country, and for good reason." Greta shared a sharp critique, "Musk isn't smart. Isn't clever. He doesn't invent he appropriates. Tesla, Grok, his AI chat bot, even his public image. What we'll remember is how he manipulated public opinion while borrowing other people's work." It's a good one. 

Rick offered a more balanced view. "Musk is both. He's both innovative. He's changed the EV and satellite industries, but now he's distorting our politics with his wealth giving a megaphone to extreme views that don't reflect most voters. That's dangerous for democracy." And then there was Pat, who put it very plainly, "Had Musk stayed in the private sector, he could have been a great entrepreneur, but treating democracy like it's one of his startups that's a deal breaker." And Bill he compared Musk to an historical figure. "He's Rasputin, someone who had a chance to help but instead brought the whole system down by overreaching." And Betty summed up what many are feeling; "without ethics, technology becomes a tool for autocracy. Musk may be brilliant to some, but brilliance without moral grounding, that's not greatness. That's a threat." 

These voices aren't just opinions. They're reflections of real concern grounded in lived experience, and they echo what we're seeing unfold inside DOGE. As I mentioned earlier, Musk jump started DOGE by bringing in a team of loyalists to help execute his vision. But this wasn't your typical government bureaucrat. These were the silicon elites and the cadre of young, irreverent staffers. This was a team built for disruption, not administration. First off, Musk surrounded himself with the silicon guys, the bros, the far right influencers who shared his anti government agenda. Mark Anderson, the venture capitalist, pushed for deregulation and corporate friendly politics. 

David Sacks, another tech mogul, helped coordinate the messaging and legal defenses. Joe Lonsdale, the co founder of Palantir, provided the data infrastructure to track government employees and streamline the purge. And Vance, JD Vance served as the political enforcer. But this wasn't just a corporate takeover of government, it's a full blown ideological war. Media allies like Barry Weiss helped frame the DOGE cuts as a necessary battle against the entrenched Deep State, while Musk used X to whip up public support. He crowdsourced ideas for budget cuts, letting his followers decide which programs should live or die. And then, of course, there was the other group, the DOGE team leads, as they were called. 

They were the hand picked group of programmers, crypto enthusiasts and self proclaimed efficiency experts, most of them under 30. Some were former interns at Musk companies. Others were recruited straight from the world of right wing tech Twitter, where they had built reputations as bomb throwing anti woke warriors. They dressed in hoodies and sneakers. They openly mocked government employees. They were tasked with firing and treated their new roles, like an extension of Musk's online persona; chaotic, aggressive and indifferent to norms. One of the most notorious is Gavin Kliger, the 24 year old software engineer who once built a deep state Tracker app that falsely claimed to identify leftist bureaucrats within the federal workforce. 

Another guy, Marko, Marko Elez, had gained a following on X for his crude, racially charged memes, before being installed as a key decision maker inside the Treasury Department, thanks to Musk. Then there's Edward Coristine aka big balls, has raised concerns due to his age and being fired from an internship at PaTH Network for allegedly leaking confidential information. These are not policy experts. They are digital anarchists with a mandate to break things. And this wasn't just about shrinking the government. It was about humiliating it and with Musk as their de facto leader, the DOGE operatives weren't just enforcing policy, they were waging war on Washington itself. 

DOGE's strategy was simple, eliminate as many government workers as possible and consolidate power under Trump and Musk. Instead of using standard review processes, DOGE operatives stormed into agencies and started making cuts. These DOGE team leads were installed in every federal department. Their job, to approve all hiring and firing decisions, block job openings and ensure that agencies only kept employees deemed loyal to the administration. Agency heads, even Trump's own appointees, were often blindsided. In some cases, long time government officials showed up to work only to find that their security badges disabled and their emails locked. Their tactics were just as reckless as their attitudes. 

They walked into federal buildings like they owned the place, demanded instant access to classified databases, and when met with resistance, threatened long time government employees with immediate termination, they saw themselves as liberators, tearing down a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy, but in reality, they were clueless about how these agencies actually functioned. As the chaos unfolded, these young disruptors reveled in it. Some live tweeted their takedowns of agencies. 

Others bragged on private signal chats about how they were obliterating the parasites and starving the beast. They celebrated each mass firing as a victory for Musk's vision of a leaner, more aggressive government. Meanwhile, in real life, back to reality, it's not every day that you find yourself standing on the same street where history was made just a door down from the spot where Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, another kind of American institution stands strong, the Social Security Administration office in Brooklyn, New York. Unlike the chaos and controversy surrounding so many government agencies these days, This place feels like an oasis of calm. The waiting room is clean, the process is orderly, and the clerks are all courteous. It's a stark contrast to the doomsday picture that billionaire Elon Musk paints about Social Security, calling it a scam and pushing for cuts and closures. 

But the truth is, Social Security is one of the most trusted and supported government programs in history, with bipartisan backing and stretching back decades, despite Musk's claim, fraud in the system is actually very low. It's about 1% far less in the private sector insurance arena, and Americans overwhelmingly want to protect and even expand the program, according to recent reports. Even Republicans who traditionally favored keeping Social Security spending the same now say that we're not spending enough. Many Americans are even willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to ensure that it stays funded. That says a lot about how much people value the program. Just ask James Ross, a 68 year old veteran who was recently homeless but relied on his social security check to get by, even after a frustrating mailing mix up, he still believes in the system. "I think it's great." And of course, he's not alone. But while Social Security remains intact for now, maybe not forever, other government programs aren't so lucky. 

The Trump administration, with Musk's help, has been slashing federal jobs left and right. So what have we learned today? DOGE isn't just a new government office, it's a tool for destruction. Guided by the project 2025, playbook, Musk and Trump are gutting federal agencies not to make them more efficient, but to make them more obedient. They're using AI to decide who stays and who goes without understanding the essential services those workers provide. And we saw what it looks like in real life, a laid off NOAA workforce just days before deadly storms swept across the country. 

Now the government is scrambling to rehire those same people, even spending more taxpayer money to fix a crisis that they created. It's wasteful, it's reckless, and it's deeply dangerous. From the dismantling of social security field offices to the layoff of scientists public health officials and safety inspectors, DOGE is hollowing out the very systems meant to serve and protect us. Musk may see it as innovation, but for millions of Americans, it's a disaster in the making. Next week, we're going to take a closer look at the aftermath, how DOGE's chaos is affecting real people, real communities and critical services across the country, from delayed weather warnings to food safety failures and more, we'll connect the dots between Musk's shadow government and the growing instability around us. 

That's all for today's episode of Surviving Trump. I hope you will join me next week when we will continue our series on Elon Musk. Before you go, I have two favors to ask; join the conversation. The transcript and the links for this episode are available, so let's talk. Drop a comment, ask a question, push back on ideas. This isn't just a podcast. It's a community for you and me. Tell me what you think. Love the show. Let me know. Have a critique. I want to know that too. Should I keep going? Shift gears, your feedback shapes what comes next. And follow me on Blue Sky, let's keep the discussion going. 

And on that note, I leave you with some random humor. There's a columnist by the name of Jeff Livingston who shared a recent article. He compared Elon Musk to George the Third of Great Britain, and he noted that Americans get pretty pissed off when an unelected rich foreigner starts messing with their taxes. One of the comments he got back asked, "so how many Teslas should we be throwing into the Boston Harbor?" Till next time? Stay engaged, stay informed, and most importantly, stay in the fight. This is Bella Goode, signing off.