Shortly after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, he announced, with great fanfare, that billionaire Elon Musk and professional troll Vivek Ramaswamy were being put in charge of a "government efficiency" program. Despite all the hype, however, there were immediate signs that this effort may not be as serious as Musk and Ramaswamy implied with their relentless chest-beating about "cuts" and "deleting" entire agencies. The name — Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — sounds very official, but it's just a reference to a dumb meme that Musk is obsessed with, despite being about four decades too old for it.

More importantly, it's not a real department. It's a "presidential advisory committee," which sounds very official, but isn't compensated and doesn't come with any real power. These committees have a long history of being used to create the appearance of "doing something" while doing nothing — President Joe Biden killed the judicial reform debate with this tactic. Of course, Trump, being an authoritarian who loathes democracy, loves using unofficial advisors and outside powers. It's reasonable to worry that DOGE will have more power than such committees usually have. However, Musk's behavior on Twitter is a strong sign that he, at least, is starting to worry that DOGE is a toothless initiative.

Musk has been harassing individual federal employees, by name, on Twitter. They mostly seem to be women, chosen at random because he appears to find their job titles annoying. As CNN reports, "Several current federal employees told CNN they’re afraid their lives will be forever changed – including physically threatened – as Musk makes behind-the-scenes bureaucrats into personal targets." Musk understands that his fan base........

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