Elon Musk admitted to The Economist that he "got carried away" working as the unelected director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Donald Trump, where he oversaw mass firings and federal spending cuts, including to USAID, despite public health researchers linking the cuts to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
The United States is experiencing converging crises in election security, public health, and environmental protection. The Trump administration's policies, including federal workforce cuts, reduced funding for agencies, and rollbacks of environmental regulations, are exacerbating these issues, leading to disease outbreaks and increased vulnerability to environmental disasters.
Donald Trump signed an executive order making it easier to fire thousands of senior federal workers, stripping job protections from about 8,000 employees deemed to be "influencing" government policy. Labor union leaders argue this move is a step backward to the "spoils system."
