How to make Elon Musk’s budget-slashing dreams come true
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Hello from London,
Here’s one prediction for the week ahead. As close scrutiny continues of Donald Trump’s nominees for government, I expect it will become clearer that one or more of them is set to fail. Yes, the incoming president has a powerful electoral mandate. He may say that every colourful name he has announced must take office, even though the likes of Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy junior, Pete Hegseth and others were on the extremist, nutty fringe of politics until recently. (Incidentally, what has Marjorie Taylor Greene done wrong to have not yet been picked for a job?)
I suspect, instead, that Mr Trump is being more Machiavellian. He probably also foresees, and may even welcome, that one or more of his chosen figures will fall away. Perhaps the Senate will block an appointment. Maybe, as details of police inquiries become public in one or more cases, a preferred candidate will be obliged to withdraw. Most of his chosen candidates will get through, but when one or more are blocked Mr Trump can have his cake and eat it: he will bewail the deep state, telling supporters that his opponents want to thwart the radical changes that he would supposedly bring.
And here’s my second prediction, for the slightly longer term. Elon Musk and Mr Trump will have an almighty falling-out. I can’t see either man being willing to submit for long to the discipline or constraints that come from working closely with (or for) the other. Each expects to be the top dog. Yesterday we suggested how the Department of Government Efficiency, the joke-named institution that Mr Musk is set to run, might make the budget cuts it is set up to achieve. But stripping away a lot of public spending is bound to upset the lives of a lot of ordinary Americans—the ones who just voted for Mr Trump—by slashing funds for welfare, infrastructure or defence, or by failing to pay off debt.
For all the drama in American politics, meanwhile, the most powerful effects of Mr Trump’s pending arrival as president are already being felt in foreign affairs—most obviously in Ukraine and Russia. Over the weekend President Joe Biden authorised the use of American long-range missiles inside Russia—a decision that will be welcomed in Ukraine. With Russian forces continuing to gain territory, and Vladimir Putin bringing in extra fighters from North Korea, an early ceasefire is not the same as a good outcome for Ukraine. As our columnist on geopolitics writes in our new column, The Telegram, this might mean acquiescing, more or less, to Russian terms. In places such as Crimea and the eastern Donbas region, Russia will keep direct control of the territory it stole. In the rest of Ukraine, Russian influence will be indirect but still real, just as the Soviet Union held a veto over Finland’s political alignment during the cold war.
Dateline (our history quiz) and the pint-sized news quiz, our test of whether you’ve kept up with the week’s news, are both live. Can you get high scores in both?
Here’s my final prediction for the week: you will hear a lot more forecasts about 2025 from my colleagues. We are poised to publish the new edition of “The World Ahead”, setting out our political, economic, technological, cultural and other judgments for the coming year. (You can re-read last year’s edition, meanwhile, and check how we did last time.) Our correspondents around the world, along with editors in London and some guest writers, will provide the best possible guide to the trends and events in 2025. It’s going to be a lively year. And if you’re a subscriber, you can join a live event on November 21st with Tom Standage, who edits “The World Ahead”. Sign up here.
Adam Roberts, Digital editor
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Founder at New American Spring
2wThe Department of Government Efficiency is a good idea, but it will be extremely challenging to cut programs without doing a lot of damage. It's like cancer surgery. I just resigned from a nonprofit organization, for example, which is deeply sick, inefficient and apathetically ran. Not to mention its other nonprofit and government, community partners! The program I worked under is FEMA funded. I see so many ways that FEMA can do a wiser job...
OK Boštjan Dolinšek
Global Project Expert A2R - VAT at Merck
1moDo they have a plan how to reduce administration? Some technical tools, internet solutions? Or they will just fire ppl, close some divisions and it will be all? Oh and lets not forget about the idea to hire ppl for DOGE who are willing to work 80h/ week... really brilliant Musk talks a lot, but most ppl forget that his businesses thrive thanks to public money, the same spaceX... bilions which he received thanks to govenrment contracts. My feeling is that he will want to sell his "tools" to public administration and earn next billions... Trump wants a mass deportation, but he forget those ppl (most of them) work... and who will work if they will be forced to leave?
Chairman / Former President of Executive Committee in the Pakistan Association of the Deaf
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High School Graduate
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