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US Government Needs 'Creative Destruction,' Heritage Foundation Says
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February 5, 2025
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9:27Now PlayingHeritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts talks about how his organization's Project 2025 is influencing the Trump administration and Elon Musk government efficiency drive.
Congressional Republicans have managed barely a whimper as President Donald Trump wages a historic push to expand executive branch power, steamrolling them along the way and unleashing anxiety across the federal government.
Trump’s not only made a play to snatch authorities that are constitutionally in Congress’s remit, particularly how to spend billions of federal funds, he’s empowered his most-visible adviser, Elon Musk, to case federal agencies for sensitive information and cut staff.
The world’s richest man is so emboldened by Trump’s imprimatur that over this past weekend his own underlings held a standoff at the US Agency for International Development that’s resulted in the 60-year-old agency being essentially idled. Musk, hand-picked by Trump but not Senate confirmed, has been given “read-only” access to “coded data” of the government’s payments system, the Treasury Department confirmed on Tuesday.
There appear to be few guardrails for either man.
Trump looks increasingly likely to have his cabinet picks confirmed, including some who have drawn questions about their fitness for the roles. Only former Representative Matt Gaetz, who faced accusations of illicit drug use and paid sex with a minor — allegations that he’s denied — proved too much for GOP senators to stomach through the confirmation process.
Republican lawmakers are unwilling to challenge Trump on almost anything, said a senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they otherwise fear reprisal. The senior Republican likened the treatment of the president’s directives among their colleagues to Holy Scripture, with any contradiction considered a breach of faith.
Such a dynamic was a staple of Trump’s first term in office, when Republicans contorted themselves to avoid being crosswise with the vindictive and mercurial president. Trump now is term-limited, but his grip on the party has never been tighter.
In the roughly two weeks that he’s been back in the White House, congressional Republicans, who control the House and Senate, have displayed remarkable acquiescence alongside Trump’s extraordinary power grab.
There were a few instances of special pleading for particular programs and a few senators, when asked by reporters, suggested Trump would likely need congressional approval to shut down USAID or fold it into the State Department.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune demurred on Tuesday when asked if Trump had the power to eliminate a department. “I do think they have the right to review funding,” Thune told reporters.
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