Seamus Bruner, Research Director at GAI and the author of three books, most recently Controligarchs, told host Amanda Head of Just the News that Elon Musk’s DOGE effort is a threat to the political establishment’s gravy train, not to US taxpayers.
Appearing on the “Furthermore” podcast, Bruner told Head, “it’s obvious from the things that DOGE has uncovered and put a stop to. Billions and billions, possibly trillions of dollars have been wasted.”
In Controligarchs, Bruner explored the world’s wealthiest influencers. Often, these ultra-wealthy individuals set up or become patrons of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are supposed to do good in the world but often, he found, end up serving the needs of their overlords instead.
Bruner went on to discuss many examples of wasteful spending uncovered at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other bureaucracies by Musk’s efforts thus far.
“This is how they make their money. They have all sorts of NGOs and nonprofits that they funnel government grant money into, which we see that with USAID,” he said. “There’s just this network of huge NGOs whose sole donor is the US government. So, we taxpayers consider that wasteful spending. But for the government party, that is everything.”