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WaPo Provides Cover for Musk's Government Takeover Pete Tucker ([link removed])


Column: US Media's Credulous Depiction of 'DOGE' as a Good Faith "Efficiency Panel" Has Aged Poorly

Adam Johnson (Column, 2/3/25 ([link removed]) ): "The New York Times, Washington Post and CNN ran with the framing that 'DOGE' was some good-faith, post-ideological effort to 'cut costs,' 'find savings' and 'increase efficiencies.'”

Having spent nearly $300 million ([link removed]) to purchase the US presidency for Donald Trump, Elon Musk now feels entitled to do with it as he pleases. Just how radically Musk plans to remake the country was conveyed to the American people only after the election, when Musk stood behind the presidential seal on Inauguration Day and gave a Nazi salute ([link removed]) . Then did it again. Maybe that sort of thing was OK to do in apartheid South Africa ([link removed]) , where Musk grew up, but it’s jarring to see here in the United States.

Reporters initially struggled to meet the moment (FAIR.org, 2/4/25 ([link removed]) ), downplaying Musk’s salute (the Washington Post described a "high-energy speech ([link removed]) "), as well as his broader agenda, which Musk now openly declares a “revolution ([link removed]) ,” and consists of an unelected billionaire wresting control of nearly the entire executive branch of government. Early media reports went along with Musk's "efficiency" mantra (Column, 2/3/25 ([link removed]) ), but more recently reporters have started to find their footing, and the dangers of
Musk’s project are being conveyed. Sort of.

“Reporters on the battlefield are doing what they can” to expose the radical nature of Trump’s second term, writes media columnist Oliver Darcy (Status, 2/5/25 ([link removed]) ). “The news generals back in the command center, however, are largely abdicating their duties.”


** 'Musk’s audacious goal'
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Nowhere is this discrepancy more apparent than at the Washington Post, a newspaper famed for opposing ([link removed]) a prior Republican president with an expansive view of executive power. These days, however, even as Post reporters like Jeff Stein are busy breaking stories (e.g., 1/28/25 ([link removed]) , 2/8/25 ([link removed]) ) about the Trump power grab, the paper’s higher-ups are careful not to offend the president or Musk. The Post is even, incredibly, calling on the Constitution-defying billionaire duo to push further.
WaPo: Trump needs to erect guardrails for DOGE

As Elon Musk seizes extraconstitutional control of the federal budget, Washington Post editors (2/7/25 ([link removed]) ) urge him to use that power to go after Social Security and Medicare.

“To have any chance of achieving Musk’s audacious goal of $2 trillion in cuts,” the Post editorial board (2/7/25 ([link removed]) ) wrote, “Trump will need to work with elected representatives in Congress to reform entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare before they become insolvent.”

While claiming it wants Trump to “erect guardrails” for Musk, the Post urges the president to abandon one of the only guardrails he established—the cutting of Social Security and Medicare, which Trump repeatedly said he wouldn’t do ([link removed]) , but recently started waffling on ([link removed]) .

To be clear, the Post has long called for cutting so-called entitlements (FAIR.org, 11/1/11 ([link removed]) , 6/15/23 ([link removed]) ). But to do so at this moment—by encouraging a coup attempt to push further—is quite extraordinary.

The Post’s move comes as its billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is lavishing praise and millions of dollars ([link removed]) on Trump and his family, while coaching his paper to take a less critical approach in its coverage (FAIR.org, 1/22/25 ([link removed]) ). Bezos’s ingratiation toward Trump started prior to the election, when Bezos personally spiked the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris (FAIR.org, 10/30/24 ([link removed]) ).


** Good news for X from Amazon
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WaPo: Some Jewish leaders renew calls for X boycott as Musk’s power grows

The Washington Post (2/4/25 ([link removed]) ) reports on "divergent views among Jewish leaders in how to respond to Musk": Some object to his " Nazi-esque salute ([link removed]) and Holocaust jokes ([link removed]) ," others appreciate his censorship of criticism of Israel.

Bezos has also been busy making nice with Musk, his longtime rival ([link removed]) for most powerful man on Earth and in space. On both fronts, Musk now has a decided edge, aided by his control over much of the US government, which both men’s sprawling empires rely on for billions of dollars ([link removed]) in contracts.

With Musk’s hand on the public-money spigot, Bezos apparently did him a favor. After Musk openly heiled Hitler, Jewish leaders renewed calls to boycott Musk’s social media platform, X (Washington Post, 2/4/25 ([link removed]) ). “To advertisers—including Google, Amazon and the ADL: Pull your ads now,” the Jewish leaders wrote. “The pressure is working. X’s financial difficulties prove it.”

But the boycott’s pressure was countered by Bezos’s company. “[X] got good news last week, with Amazon reportedly planning to hike its advertising on the site,” the Post (2/4/25 ([link removed]) ) reported, without mentioning Bezos.

While X’s finances “were once so bad that Musk floated the idea of filing for bankruptcy,” things are suddenly looking up, the Financial Times (2/12/25 ([link removed]) ) reported:

Musk famously admitted to overpaying for Twitter after he bought the social media platform known now as X for $44 billion in 2022. But the billionaire’s foray into government has coincided with a turnaround in X’s fortunes, as advertisers, including Amazon, flock back to the platform.


** 'Lemmings leaping in unison'
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WaPo: Americans asked for it, and they’re going to get it

Kathleen Parker (Washington Post, 1/24/25 ([link removed]) ) likened those who condemned Musk's Nazi gesture to “lemmings leaping in unison from a cliff”—because it's suicidal to notice fascism in high places?

It wasn’t just Bezos’s company that threw Musk a lifeline, but also his newspaper ([link removed]) . An initial Post headline (1/20/25 ([link removed]) ), which omitted mention of Musk’s Nazi salute, read “Elon Musk Gives Exuberant Speech at Inauguration.” The following day, Post columnist Megan McArdle, echoing the ADL ([link removed]) , downgraded Musk’s salute to an “awkward gesture ([link removed]) ,” the same phrase Post columnist Kathleen Parker used to dismiss those who saw something more sinister as “lemmings leaping in unison from a cliff” (Washington Post, 1/24/25 ([link removed]) ).

Interestingly, one of the most vociferous "lemmings" was Post columnist Catherine Rampell, who brilliantly called out Musk’s Nazi salute, but on CNN ([link removed]) , and noticeably not in the Post, except once in passing (1/30/25 ([link removed]) ).

Musk responded to Rampell’s CNN appearance by threatening to sue her in a post (1/27/25 ([link removed]) ) to his over 200 million X followers.

I noted at the top that Musk spent nearly $300 million to elect Trump, but that’s only part of the story. Musk also provided inestimable support by transforming X into a pro-Trump bullhorn. Personally, when I logged onto X during the campaign, I routinely saw Musk’s pro-Trump tweets at the top of my feed, even though I didn’t follow Musk at the time.

Since the election, Musk ’s gifts to Trump have continued. X recently agreed to pay Trump $10 million to settle Trump’s 2021 lawsuit against the company, even though the case was dismissed in 2022 ([link removed]) . Trump was still appealing the ruling two-and-a-half years later when a deal was cut. “The settlement talks with X began after the election and were more informal, with both Trump and Musk personally involved in hammering out the $10 million number,” the Wall Street Journal (2/13/25 ([link removed]) ) reported.


** 'Cheering for change'
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NYT: Elon Musk’s Business Empire Scores Benefits Under Trump Shake-Up

New York Times (2/11/25 ([link removed]) ): Many of the federal agencies targeted by Musk "were leading investigations, enforcement matters or lawsuits pending against Mr. Musk’s companies."

It’s quite something for Elon Musk—the world’s richest human ([link removed]) and one of the largest government contractors—to gleefully slash public spending benefiting others ([link removed]) . Especially when, by one measure, “virtually all of his net worth can be pinned to government help,” CNN (11/20/24 ([link removed]) ) reported.

While Musk claims to wield a populist’s pitchfork as he attacks “the bureaucracy ([link removed]) ,” a closer look reveals the work of an oligarch’s scalpel. Musk’s coup team—called DOGE, and consisting mostly of twentysomething male engineers, several of whom appear to share Musk’s racist ideology (New York Times, 2/7/25 ([link removed]) )—is targeting the federal agencies investigating Musk’s companies, which in addition to X, include Tesla and SpaceX.

“President Trump has been in office less than a month, and Elon Musk’s vast business empire is already benefiting—or is now in a decidedly better position to benefit,” read the opening lines of a New York Times story (2/11/25 ([link removed]) ):

At least 11 federal agencies that have been affected by [Trump’s] moves have more than 32 continuing investigations, pending complaints or enforcement actions into Mr. Musk’s six companies.

While Trump claims Musk is “not gaining anything ([link removed]) ” from the arrangement, and Musk says the same, Wall Street sees things differently. Even as Musk says he’s turning his “efficiency” revolution to the Pentagon—the only federal agency never to pass an audit ([link removed]) , and where any honest attempt to rein in government spending would begin—stocks for armsmaking companies associated with Musk are surging, while those without ties to him languish. “Palantir, as well as Musk’s SpaceX, OpenAI and robotics and AI specialist Anduril Industries, are cheering for change,” the Wall Street Journal (2/10/25 ([link removed]) ) reported.

In other words, having seized control of the levers of government, an oligarch will now be directing funding to himself and his cronies. That’s Wall Street’s view, anyhow.

It seems to be Bezos’s as well. With Amazon and Blue Origin, Bezos’s space company, competing for billions ([link removed]) in government contracts, it makes perfect business sense for Bezos to cozy up to Musk and Trump. From a journalistic perspective, however, it’s nothing short of a disaster, one that’s playing out daily in the pages of the Washington Post.
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Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread on FAIR.org ([link removed]) .
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