As I followed the new presidential administration over the past month, one event in particular threw me off. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk held a press conference in the Oval Office together, and Musk stood out like a sore thumb. He brought his son, stood next to Trump and wore a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat with a coat over his T-shirt. This image of Musk showed me how much power he has and how dangerous it can be.

Musk is the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and is classified as a “special government employee.” This position of power was created for Musk because he became close friends with Trump. Their friendship might have something to do with the over $288 million Musk invested in Trump’s presidential campaign, making him Trump’s biggest donor. He embodies something conservatives claim to hate: an unelected official who bought his way to the top and is able to make decisions that hurt everyone.

While claiming to be doing what is best for the American people, Musk is harming us with his brazen firings and haphazard funding cuts thanks to his agency, DOGE. The stated goal of DOGE is to find waste in the government and make it more efficient. They claim to be doing great on this front, but their cuts have been devastating. The department seems to be taking a “cut jobs now, think about it later” mindset. Mass firings across the federal government have been going on, often without reason and negatively affecting their departments.

Since Musk bought his way to this position, the White House has attempted to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) entirely, cut around $900 million of funding to the Department of Education and laid off workers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Park Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Veterans Affairs and more. They also tried to pause all federal grants and loans before having to rescind the order after massive backlash.

Those departments are key cogs in the federal government. Without the right number of staff for them, the safety of the American people and the ability of the government to function is put in jeopardy. Everything from vital research on diseases to proper handling of tax returns hangs in the balance with these cuts. We see this already with the Department of Agriculture scrambling to hire back employees who were fired while working on Bird flu research. Not to mention how other countries would be devastated by their supply of necessities USAID provides for them being cut off.

Musk’s position also involves major hypocrisy of the United States’ involvement in his companies. According to the New York Times, at least 11 federal agencies have investigated his companies, all of which have experienced firings under the new administration. With no one checking his power, Musk can freely pursue agencies that pry into his private enterprises, forcing them to stop and bow to him.

This amount of influence is odd for someone who was not on the ballot in the 2024 presidential election. Musk is not in this position based on merit or the will of the people. He is there because of the money he paid Trump. He is using this position for his own gain and to cut our essential programs. All his money and private enterprises constitute a conflict of interest, so he should not be near these agencies in the first place.

We cannot accept this as a new reality. This country should be run by those we elected to that position, not an oligarch who thinks our federal workers and programs are useless obstacles.