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Comment by AnimalMuppet | Hacker News Reader

Why does Musk have the authority to do this? Yeah, I know, DOGE is the new name for the United States Digital Service. Why does that give them the authority to fire government employees in other parts?

Trump says Musk has no particular official role. So how does he have the official authority to pull stunts like this?

What is the legal basis for all this? Is there even a pretend legal facade for this? Or is it just "screw the law, we'll have done 99 other things before a lawsuit on this one comes to trial"?

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Not even Youtuber LeagleEagle figured it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihvSwJT0rLU

They did it in Clinton/Gore. They did a full perfomance review of all agencies/employees and fired and shutdown a lot. But they used congress and behind the scenes efforts. Of course social media wasn't a thing back then.

The right way to do it was what Clinton/Gore did with setting up the VP as the head of the cost cutting agency and using congress to pass laws.

As someone who is all for shrinking government this is what drives me nuts about Trump. It's like they run head first into the shit storm time and time again.

Exactly this. Downsizing the government is fine. But there are good ways to do it, mediocre ways to do it, and then there's the clusterfuck way to do it. We're experiencing the latter.

But it's clear this isn't really about downsizing the government. I really don't think Trump give's a shit about the federal budget or the size of the deficit. It's about a show of power. Trump is proving that he can be king by getting away with doing whatever he wants.

> Why does Musk have the authority to do this?

Because nobody has stopped him. That may change, but until it does, he can kinda do whatever he wants.

This whole thing so far seems to be predicated on the idea that the courts will let Trump do anything he likes.

I actually suspect that that is not correct. Trump’s pet justices were chosen off a list of candidates who were primarily focused on, well, screwing over women and minorities, enthusiastic for banning abortion, attacking LGBT rights, voting rights, etc.

It’s not, however, clear that they’re up for turning the US into Russia. It’s the sort of job where you care about legacy; you probably don’t want your legacy to be “ensured that a Supreme Court was not necessary going forward”, which is where this is headed if they let him do what he wants.

> Why does Musk have the authority to do this?

Why do you assume he does?

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