Donald Trump sparked a liberal meltdown Tuesday night by telling Elon Musk to slash billions in government waste and tapping anti-woke Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.
In announcing the new addition to his rapidly filling administration, Trump said that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will ‘dismantle’ the $6.5 trillion federal government by co-leading the ‘Manhattan Project of our time’ – dubbed the Dept. of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
‘The Office of Government Efficiency is off to a great start with split leadership: two people to do the work of one person,’ Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren snarked. ‘Yeah, this seems REALLY efficient.’
Another account added: ‘lol we’re all gonna die aren’t we, cool cool cool.’
Musk jumped on X to pledge to slash hundreds of agencies from the federal government. He and Trump hope to recapture the spirit of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project, which saw the first nuclear weapons developed in just three years between 1942 and 1945.
That effort yielded the atomic bombs that the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, leading to an end to the Second World War.
Musk posted a clip of his chat with Tucker Carlson where he declared that government largesse is so rampant, citizens won’t even realize it’s gone.
‘There are around 428 federal agencies. There’s so many that people have never even heard of,’ he told Carlson. ‘I think we should be able to get away with 99 agencies.’
Musk added in his Tuesday night post: ’99 Federal agencies is more than enough.’
That would leave 329 federal agencies on the chopping block.
Which agencies Musk planned to cut were unclear but he emphasized the slashing was not a ‘threat to democracy’ but a ‘threat to bureaucracy’ – adding that he would be open to suggestions.
‘All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,’ he wrote. ‘Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!’
He also added that he will have a ‘leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining.’
Ramaswamy, another billionaire who ran for the Republican nomination, said in a post of his own that, ‘We will not go gently, @ElonMusk.’
However, lefties raged against Musk and Ramaswamy by claiming DOGE was not an official government department.
Alex Wagner called it ‘Orwellian’ on MSNBC and cracked: ‘Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk [are] being offered jobs in a fantasy football league.’
Wagner was interviewing anti-Trump attorney George Conway, who called it a ‘nonexistent department.’
‘First of all, it’s not going to be a governmental department as I understand it and there are actually rules and statutes that apply, I think,’ he added.
On CNN, Jeffrey Toobin said that large-scale government cuts have been tried before and the boring details will not please the MAGA faithful.
‘If you wanna get rid of part of a government department. If you want to change the structure of the Department of Education, the Department of the Interior, you have to go through all these steps,’ he said.
‘And like it or not, these two entrepreneurs are gonna have to start learning that and following it and it’s gonna drive them crazy, and we’ll see how much they actually do,’ Toobin added.
Adding to the left-wing freak out was Tuesday night’s nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon lost his mind in a video posted about the appointment, claiming he thought it was a joke until he saw Trump’s statement.
‘When I saw it, I thought The AP (Associated Press) must have been hacked,’ the former CNN anchor said. ‘But Pete Hegseth? The morning, weekend host on Fox News? Come on.’
Liberal anchor Joy Reid on MSNBC mocked the president-elect’s cabinet as a ‘clown car’ and appeared to be laugh when she read the news.
‘The former and future president is moving quickly to fill the clown car and round out his cabinet before he changes his mind and fires them all. Moments ago Trump announced that he has selected Fox morning weekend host Pete Hegseth… because why not?’ she said.
Dan Goldman, a Democratic congressman from New York, told CNN that Hegseth is ‘clearly a sycophant cheerleader’ of Trump.
‘I’m shocked, truly. And this is exactly what we worried about and we warned about Donald Trump, which is that he is going to appoint unqualified loyalists to shape this government into his own personal fiefdom, and get revenge on generals and put essentially really unqualified people,’ he said.
Goldman added: ‘I appreciate Mr. Hegseth’s service in our armed forces, but being a serviceman does not make you qualified to lead the Department of Defense and to have access to our nuclear weapons.’
‘So, we’re replacing a former four-star general as Defense Secretary with… the weekend co-host of Fox and Friends? Unbelievable. Just… wow,’ wrote Chris D. Jackson, a Biden booster.
Elizabeth Warren once again chimed in: ‘A Fox & Friends weekend co-host is not qualified to be the Secretary of Defense. I lead the Senate military personnel panel. All three of my brothers served in uniform. I respect every one of our servicemembers. Donald Trump’s pick will make us less safe and must be rejected.’
While liberals were the most apoplectic, even some anti-Trump conservatives were confounded by the nomination.
‘From silly diner interviews on Weekend Fox and Friends to Secretary of Defense?’ Former Fox & Friends co-host Gretchen Carlson wrote on X. ‘Yes he’s a veteran … and?’
The reaction of Senate Republicans was a mix of confusion but also hopeful optimism.
‘Really? I’d have to think about it,’ said Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said: ‘Wow… I’m just surprised because the names that I’ve heard for Secretary of Defense have not included him.’
Ted Budd of North Carolina, however, called Hegseth ‘an impressive individual.’
In a recent interview, Hegseth suggested his plans for the office, including getting rid of what he called ‘woke s***’ in the military.’
Anyone ‘involved in the woke sh*t has got to go…you have to reestablish that trust by putting in no-nonsense warfighters in those positions who aren’t going to cater to the socially correct garbage,’ he said.
‘You’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking. And then, you know, whatever the standards, whatever the combat standards were, say, and, I don’t know, 1995, let’s just make those the standards.’
He also wants to hire the makers of Top Gun Maverick to make slick Hollywood-style recruiting ads to ‘motivate people to want to serve.’
The 44-year-old has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and won two Bronze Stars. He unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Minnesota in 2012 before joining Fox News.
‘Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First,’ Trump said in a statement, as he spent much of Tuesday adding to his Cabinet.
The appointment came just hours after former Democrat Congresswoman and Trump ally Tulsi Gabbard said she’d wanted the job.
‘With Pete at the helm, America´s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,’ Trump added.
Trump has already signaled his intention to steamroll his nominations through Congress, and even defy his own party, by making recess appointments.
The president-elect is rolling out a steady stream of appointees and nominees for his upcoming administration, working thus far at a faster pace and without as much drama as his first transition following his 2016 victory.
Hegseth has been a contributor with Fox since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show.
He is also the author of ‘The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.’
The book, according to its promo, combines ‘his own war experiences, tales of outrage, and an incisive look at how the chain of command got so kinked,’ and bills itself as ‘the key to saving our warriors – and winning future wars.’
While the Pentagon is considered a key coveted post in any administration, the defense secretary was a tumultuous post during Trump´s first term.
Hegseth was an infantry captain in the Army National Guard and served overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
He was formerly head of the Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises – ranging from Russia´s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea.