The administrative state’s castle keep is finally under siege

What a few weeks it has been since Donald Trump returned to the White House! Much of the recent controversy stems from the work of the Department of Government Efficiency team, led by Elon Musk, whom some have called a modern-day Einstein.

Musk’s team of engineers uncovered significant government expenditures, including $10 million sent to Al-Qaeda and $100 million allocated to Egypt for cultural sites. The DOGE also reported that FEMA spent $59 million on luxury hotels for illegal aliens, while the Department of Health and Human Services spent $22.6 billion on illegal immigrants between 2020 and 2024.

Who wouldn’t vote for a party that hands out billions — to itself?

The DOGE investigation prompted a House committee hearing, chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). During the hearing, Haywood Talcove testified that organized thieves stole $1 trillion in pandemic relief funds, with much of the money flowing to foreign criminals who used it to fund drug trafficking, human trafficking, and even terrorism.

The hearing also revealed that systemic taxpayer fraud has persisted for years. HHS’ Medicaid program has reportedly misallocated $100 billion annually for several years. The fraud rate for public funds stands at 20%, meaning that for every $5 in taxpayer money spent, $1 is wasted. While many Americans are alarmed by these findings, Democrats have defended the existing system.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) led a “Save the Civil Service” protest, rallying supporters by asking, “Are you ready to push back against Elon Musk’s unlawful orders?” Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) accused Trump and Musk of breaking the law, while Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) called on Democrats to “bring actual weapons” to the “fight for democracy.”

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) took a more measured approach, stating that he joined the oversight committee “to save our democracy and to uphold my oath to defend the Constitution.” Meanwhile, Democrats have filed more than 55 lawsuits in an effort to halt the DOGE initiative.

Why are the Democrats so angry?

They’ve been attacking the Constitution for over a century to build a fortress of wealth and power for their party. Now, those walls are crumbling.

Woodrow Wilson expanded the administrative state by establishing broad, unconstitutional powers and funding them by stripping wealth and authority from individuals, local governments, and states — concentrating power in Washington, D.C. Franklin D. Roosevelt then created a vast network of federal agencies that further removed decision-making from the people’s elected representatives and placed it under the control of the executive branch.

Today, more than 400 federal agencies exist, deliberately constructed over the past century as a Democratic stronghold. Unlike elected officials, who serve at the people’s discretion, those who control the administrative state maintain wealth and power indefinitely.

As President Ronald Reagan famously said, “The nearest thing to eternal life is a government program.” As a conservative, Reagan attempted to shrink the administrative state, but he failed — largely because lukewarm Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats.

How Democratic is the administrative state? In the 2020 election cycle, 96% of donations from the American Federation of Government Employees went to Democrats. The Democratic Party and the administrative state have become virtually interchangeable.

Many assume that the House of Representatives controls government spending, but that’s not entirely true. Most federal agencies receive funding through block grants. If an agency is allocated $1 billion — a relatively small sum for a federal department — it has full discretion over how that money is spent.

The administrative state directs its funding toward programs and nongovernmental organizations that align overwhelmingly with Democratic Party ideology. These budgets are rarely cut and have continued to grow automatically for the past century. Now, however, cracks are beginning to form in the castle keep.

For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development has drawn attention for its questionable spending priorities. The agency allocated $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia and $2 million for sex-change operations in Guatemala. But the problems run deeper — USAID reportedly spends an estimated 50% of its budget on overhead, a figure that suggests a significant number of Democratic-aligned employees.

Of the $142 billion in awards granted by USAID, officials could not account for $71 billion in overhead costs. Without clear bookkeeping, it is reasonable to assume that much of this money benefited Democrats and their friends.

Let’s take another example. The DOGE effort has cut 89 Department of Education contracts totaling $881 million and revoked 29 DEI training grants worth $101 million. No wonder Democrats are outraged — nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds that were earmarked for ideological indoctrination and Democratic Party interests are now gone.

For decades, the education system funneled money into programs designed to make American children hate their history, identity, and country. These programs also financially benefited the Democratic Party. Who wouldn’t vote for a party that hands out billions — to itself?

Meanwhile, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin uncovered a previously unknown Citibank account funded by the Environmental Protection Agency in the final days of the Biden administration. The account held a staggering $20 billion in taxpayer money. One EPA administrator, caught on camera, admitted, “They were throwing gold bars off the Titanic.”

For Democrats, preserving their financial fortress takes priority over the well-being of the nation. They would rather see the country sink than lose control over their stronghold of wealth and influence.