By Phakamile Hlubi-Majola
As the dust settles from the recent US election, and President Elect Trump prepares to take office in January 2025, clues about his domestic and foreign policy direction are becoming clearer.
In the past few weeks, Trump has practiced cadre deployment, appointing proponents of his MAGA political movement into key positions of the state machinery.
Among the noteworthy appointments is that of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the joint heads of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The formation of DOGE has been a significant development. In a recent article, I detailed the evolution of Trump’s bromance with Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and owner of the popular X platform. Musk heavily invested, financially and physically in a Trump victory, more than any other billionaire supporter of the president elect. Trumps electoral victory has expanded the bromance into a fully-fledged marriage.
Musk donated an estimated $132m to Trump and other Republicans, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), with the bulk of the money going directly to the Trump campaign. In addition, Musk used his X platform as an effective tool to reach and communicate directly with Trump voters, as well as whole swathes of low propensity voters, who are mostly young men who idolise Musk and are permanently online. Musk, as a surrogate for Trump, physically held rallies in swing states such as Pennsylvania, which was a must win for both candidates in the election.
The Musk effect in the election was profound. Republicans outperformed the Democrats among notable demographics, such as young men, who chose Trump by two points over Vice President, Kamala Harris. Rural American voters, whom Musk had targeted, also turned out for Trump in numbers. It can be argued that Musk’s initiatives combined, almost single handedly delivered the electoral victory for Trump.
Trump stated, during one of his campaign rallies, that he would appoint Musk as secretary of cost cutting. Sure enough, one of the President Elect’s first announcements was the formation of DOGE, to be headed by Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, a MAGA fanatic, who after unsuccessfully challenging Trump in the Republican primaries swiftly bent the knee, and was rewarded by being a surrogate for Trump, during the presidential campaign.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy are firm proponents for drastic cuts of the US federal state. Musk’s record of cost cutting is well-known. At X he slashed high numbers of workers from eight thousand employees to just one thousand five hundred, reflecting a philosophy that commentators have referred to as “slash first and fix later”. The social media platform has not been the same ever since. Musk’s activities on X, such as the launch of erstwhile Trump Republican rival Ron De Santis’s campaign on Spaces, have been peppered with technical glitches. Regardless of these, Musk persevered with his drastic cost cutting at X, which has resulted in a reduction from 10% to 8% of active users. His approach at X demonstrates a ruthless determination. Such a disregard for consequential actions is a harbinger of doom for the US state machinery, which is now firmly in Musk’s crosshairs.
For his part, Ramaswamy is an avowed enemy of the “deep state”, which he characterises as the bulk of civil servants who are ideologically opposed to Trump, and therefore have done everything in their power to block the MAGA agenda. This was the case, according to Vivek, during Trump’s first term and would also be the case in the second term. Ramaswamy has stated that their plan is to “bring a chainsaw to DOGE”.
The partnership of the two men portends havoc for the US state and how it delivers for its people. According to media reports, Ramaswamy wants to cut at least 75% of the two million Federal workers, employed by the state, which means 1.5 million people would lose their jobs.
Trump has stated that Musk and Ramaswamy would work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to tackle "massive waste and fraud" and cut two trillion or more than a third in annual government spending.
Musk also said he plans to cut the number of government agencies from 428 to 99. A move he has described as creating “temporary hardship, for long term prosperity”. Like all greedy capitalists Musk is forcing the working class to absorb the full impact of the ‘hardships,’ through mass layoffs, whilst wealthy billionaires like himself, will benefit from the prosperity.
Firmly in the firing line of the two men are the following programs:
- The Affordable Healthcare Act or Obamacare
Trump’s disdain for President Obama’s key policy legacy is well known. During his first term, Trump threatened to gut Obamacare, and was only prevented from doing so, by a remarkably close Senate vote. The appointment of Musk and Ramaswamy might provide Trump the best opportunity yet to slash funding for the program, even though about forty-five million Americans are beneficiaries.
- Education
Trump has threatened to shut down the federal Education Department, which MAGA view as responsible for the “woke” education policies that they vehemently oppose. Programs such as the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act, which delegated power to state and local education officials to set primary and secondary education achievement standards, are in line for massive cuts. Student Debt will not escape the scrutiny of the cost cutting dons. Republicans already despise the idea of government intervention, no matter how small, in alleviating the heavy burden of student debt in America. They will most certainly use DOGE to slash any programs that seek to forgive or reduce, student debt in any manner.
- State Department
Trump’s movement is decidedly America First in its foreign policy orientation. This means that programs that are run by the State Department are in line for massive cuts, or even face total elimination as the US government pivots to focus all its resources on Americans. During Trump’s first term, his state department stopped funding the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNWRA) for Palestinian Refugees, and even the Internal Revenue Service which is America’s version of SARS, is bracing itself for spending cuts.
- Climate change programs
Trump’s disdain for climate change science is well-documented. One of the major acts of his past administration was to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. This was an unprecedented action. One of Biden’s first act, after defeating Trump in 2020, was to restore the US’s participation in the Accord. Trump is expected to withdraw once again. This time, through DOGE, he is expected to go further by defunding governmental programs agencies such the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In the lead up to the recent elections, Trump was branded a "dangerous fascist" by the liberal media and the Democrats. The freedoms that Americans enjoy, will be severely limited under his presidency, according to the reportage. However, what is more likely is that millions of government workers such as teachers, office workers, and administrators will lose their livelihoods. This is because of Musk and Ramaswamy’s stated intention to drastically reduce the federal workforce, under the guise that they are "draining the swamp", which is a phrase used to describe the establishment elite which has control of the deep state. If Musk and Ramaswamy have their way, ordinary American workers must prepare to organise themselves to defend their jobs and the gains that they have made over decades, because they will come under attack.
With Trump at the helm, the duopoly of the Republicans and the Democrats retains control, but more importantly, the power and dominance of the markets remains firmly entrenched. In Trump they have a pit-bull who will force the most conservative reforms down the throats of the working class and preserve the status of the wealthy one per cent, as the ruling class over society.
How the American working class responds to this imminent attack, remains to be seen. But what is urgently needed is the unity of progressive, socialist formations, working with organised labour on a militant program of action, to counter the rise of the right.
* Phakamile Hlubi-Majola is a Socialist and former journalist. She is currently the Spokesperson for trade union NUMSA. She writes in her personal capacity.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.