Easier is just to point out that polls show that all of this DOGE stuff is deeply unpopular [1] (as is Elon himself, incidentally). We don't have to speculate as to which of the president's agenda items have a popular mandate; we can just ask the electorate.

[1]: https://today.yougov.com/topics/economy/survey-results/daily...

If civil servants invoke Hitler to justify declaring “Resistance” to the democratically elected President, and said President turns out not to be Hitler, then they invite the reaction that results.

I was promised Muslim internment camps in 2017. There having been none, I’m cheering on the DOGE strike teams.

I think it's important that people go there too.

It's better to live in a transparent society where everyone knows who has the mindset of "people I don't like are Hitler", so they can make efficient decisions on who they associate with and how they interact with certain types of people.

It is about spending and trust over spending. I was skeptical Elon was going to find meaningful cuts. But the again I thought USAID was spending $50 billion on things like vaccines for kids in Bangladesh. Then I find out that it’s funding anti-Trump groups like Kristol’s (https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1886647920566636637) and left-wing government destabilization abroad. So now I want Elon’s nerds to trace every payment and find out how much USAID money went to “democracy” NGOs to do stuff like encourage the recent overthrow of the government in Bangladesh.

The narrative emerging here is that the same permanent-government gremlins that we always knew bankrolled efforts to destabilize the rest of the world are perfectly okay with turning those same tactics inward if the wrong candidate wins the election. If we can put these people out of business and find even $25 billion a year in the process it will be worth it.

I don’t care about Elon’s conflicts. Worst thing from that is we get a giant EV credit next year. I’m much more worried about the conflict from federal employees who overwhelmingly support one party funneling federal money to aligned NGOs.

I'd ballpark USAID at maybe half a percent? It's an easy win. A few more of these and Elon will have made a meaningful dent in the wastage of my tax dollars.

I'd consider even a 3% reduction in spend a massive success. The percentage of money being wasted is much higher, somewhere between 30% and 70% (estimates vary.)

If you've ever worked for a government contractor you've seen the immense waste/scam firsthand.

There's a great dishonesty in this argument, because it intentionally ignores the fact that this is only the opening couple of weeks in something that's going to continue for 4 years, Milei-style.

So obviously it's not a matter of what percent savings comes from closing USAID specifically, but in what total savings the posture behind that is going to create over the next 4 years.