Following President Trump's return to the White House, he appointed Elon Musk to lead the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency, prompting significant alarms about government stability. Critics, including public policy experts, warn that this initiative may be undermining constitutional authority as it appears Musk's team has bypassed traditional governmental roles. Issues have arisen over access to government systems and attempts to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development, an action requiring congressional approval, elevating concerns about respect for institutional processes and the balance of power.
If this isn't a constitutional crisis, I'm not sure what is. This is a test of how much power we think the president has and whether that power goes beyond what the Constitution and the law says.
You have people within government - civil servants - who are now increasingly threatened for just raising basic issues of law and then being punished for that, while you have actors who are coming into government, in some cases teenagers, and engaging in dramatic abuses of federal power.
Musk and his collaborators have reportedly accessed a variety of federal tech systems and databases and locked career feds out of others.
This has prompted dismay from Democrats, who point out that it takes action from Congress to shut down a government agency, as the Congressional Research Service has confirmed.
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