‘We live in a bureaucracy’: Elon Musk rants about unelected government officials despite being unelected himself
Elon Musk defended the existence of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by making righteous assertions about upholding the will of American citizens in government from unelected bureaucrats. Musk himself seems to forget that he, too, is an unelected official.
The tech billionaire, who heads DOGE, answered questions from reporters at the Oval Office. He was accompanied by his youngest son, X. For once, President Trump was rather quiet as he let Musk take to the spotlight. “If there’s not a good feedback loop from the people to the government… If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?” Musk vaguely criticized government workers for essentially functioning as they should in their roles.
Musk followed up by pointedly accusing bureaucrats of making decisions that don’t align with voter interests. “If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives, in the form of the president, and the senate, and the house, then we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a bureaucracy.”
Social media users were quick to point out Musk’s cognitive dissonance. He doesn’t have the right to speak ill of bureaucrats when he has been dubiously wreaking havoc in government agencies as an unelected official. One wrote on X, “Why is the president just quietly sitting there while Elon talks to the press about unelected bureaucracy? Bro, you are the unelected bureaucracy.”
Musk is a “special government official”—he too wasn’t elected by the people but is given access to sensitive data that can compromise national security. He talks about enforcing the will of the people and eliminating fraud. In the same breath, DOGE stepped in to suspend the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The agency creates rules and protects consumers from unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices by financial institutions and businesses. Having fewer government protections from predatory businesses is surely what the will of the people points to. Otherwise, why else would Musk target the CFBP? Another X user managed to joke about the dire situation. “I swear this is like watching the inmates take over the prison and are now sitting in the warden’s office.”
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