[The Atlantic]: There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing

How regime change happens in America. By Anne Applebaum, February 13, 2025.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/doge-civil-servant-purge/681671

Summary of “There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing: How Regime Change Happens in America”

(Full transparency the following summary and key points generated with ChatGPT for time and clarity)

The article from The Atlantic discusses the concerted efforts by Donald Trump and Elon Musk to effect a regime change within the United States federal government. Specifically, it highlights their actions to dismantle the existing civil service system and replace it with one that aligns more closely with their interests and ideologies. This strategy mirrors actions taken by authoritarian leaders like Hugo Chávez and Viktor Orbán, who used their positions to purge and reshape government bodies to consolidate power.

Under the guise of promoting government efficiency through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk, the administration has initiated sweeping changes that effectively undercut traditional civil service protections and norms. These changes are aimed at replacing a merit-based civil service with a system that rewards loyalty to Trump and Musk, thereby politicizing government work.

Five Key Points

1. Dismantling the Civil Service: Trump and Musk are accused of eroding the federal civil service by removing safeguards that ensure nonpartisan administration of government functions. This process involves replacing experienced bureaucrats with loyalists who share their political and ideological views.
2. Ideological Shifts in Governance: The efforts reflect a broader ideological push towards what some supporters of Trump and Musk envision as a necessary purge of the so-called “deep state”. This involves significant personnel changes aimed at shifting the bureaucratic alignment towards their governance style and policy preferences.
3. Manipulation of Government Resources: The article details how the administration is leveraging government resources to enforce these changes. This includes using executive orders and control over budgets to coerce compliance from government agencies and personnel, fundamentally altering how they operate and serve the public.
4. Long-term Consequences for Democracy: By altering the foundational principles of the civil service, Trump and Musk are creating a government that could be more susceptible to corruption, less efficient, and more focused on serving specific political interests rather than the public good.
5. Resistance and Morale: The regime change efforts have demoralized many career civil servants who view these changes as antithetical to the core values of public service. This could lead to a significant brain drain in skilled and experienced personnel, reducing the overall effectiveness and integrity of the federal government.

This summary and these points encapsulate the critical arguments presented in the article, reflecting on the potentially profound and lasting impacts of the Trump and Musk administration’s actions on the structure and function of the U.S. government.

The article mentions several politicians and business people involved in the efforts to change the regime within the U.S. federal government:

1. Donald Trump – Former U.S. President leading the charge for these governmental changes.
2. Elon Musk – Business magnate appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), actively involved in reshaping the civil service.
3. Russell Vought – Appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget and a key architect behind the regime change efforts, associated with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
4. J.D. Vance – Politician who has expressed support for Trump’s policies, particularly in relation to firing civil servants and replacing them with those aligned with their ideology.
5. Steve Bannon – Former White House strategist who has discussed the “deconstruction of the administrative state” as part of the broader agenda.

These figures are depicted as central to the efforts aimed at transforming the U.S. government’s administrative structure to reflect a new set of priorities and ideologies aligned with Trump and Musk’s vision.