Trump and Musk’s Illegal and Undemocratic Attack on the Power of the Purse

It is difficult to truly grasp the extent of the rampage that Elon Musk and his gang of toddler toadies have unleashed. In less than two weeks, they have seized control of critical system after critical system in the federal government, shutting off access and the flow of money, and effectively killing off agencies. The pace and the scale of their actions are unprecedented, and reporting has likely captured only a fraction of what they have been up to.

First and foremost, what he is doing is illegal. Not only is his position in the government incredibly tenuous, and the level of access he should be afforded therefore quite minimal, but he is undoing spending decisions made by democratically elected legislators. Even if Trump himself—a democratically elected president—were to do this, it would be both illegal and an attack on the foundations of our democracy.

Democracy is not just about using elections to pick your leaders. An election that picked an all-powerful executive who had the authority to change laws at will would not remain a democracy for long. Actually existing democracy requires, at minimum, routinized election procedures that conform to rules which keep them free and fair. No single actor should have the power to easily change these procedures and rules; there must be a procedure for changing the procedures. And the ultimate authority over these procedures and rules must rest with legislatures, so long as those legislatures are actually apportioned and elected in a representative manner.

A legislature is more democratic than a single elected executive because while the latter can ignore a huge portion of the population entirely, the former provides representation even for the opposition. These chambers are full of individuals that together answer to a broader cross section of the population than the executive who must simply get a plurality to win (never mind our own system, in which they sometimes needn’t even get that).

In order to update the law, pass a new one, or allocate the budget, the members of these assemblies negotiate on behalf of their constituents until an agreement is reached among a majority of them. A top executive issuing orders, by contrast, is far more unilateral in nature. An American president can choose to forego any advice from others and go entirely with their own judgement. Though it might be politically risky, they can choose to ignore the interests of even those voters who put them there. But a legislator cannot ignore the legislators that are needed to reach a majority. At minimum, the members of the majority block must all take one another into consideration, to some extent, if they are to take action at all. The odds of one man going rogue and ignoring their voters is much higher than the odds of hundreds of others doing so. 

When a president starts ignoring the laws passed by his legislature, democracy itself is very much at risk. When he starts making budgeting and spending decisions in defiance of that legislature, democracy is actively threatened. With unrestrained control of the fiscal powers of government, he can establish a patronage network to keep himself in office, or simply bribe election officials and judges to do so. It is hard enough to uncover corruption under the best of circumstances, never mind stop it. Fighting to keep spending in line with the democratic bargains lawfully hashed out by legislators is important for keeping corruption under control.

Do not underestimate how bad it will get if Trump and Musk are able to continue to do this with impunity, in defiance of legislators and the courts applying their laws. It won’t just be unethical or illegal—it will be the end of American democracy.

Featured image is Getting Rid of the Spoils System Deadwood, by Joseph Keppler