A new cover of Time magazine features billionaire Elon Musk behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office at the White House.
The photo illustration teased a cover story titled “Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington,” which chronicles his efforts to implement massive government reforms during President Trump’s first weeks in office.
Musk, the new head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has sparked widespread condemnation from Democrats and federal workers for his efforts to slash federal spending through job cuts, buyouts and other cost-saving measures.
The tech and media mogul has targeted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), calling it full of “radical-left Marxists” and putting thousands of employees on administrative leave.
The richest man on Earth, Musk was one of Trump’s most vocal supporters and biggest donors on the campaign trail and has vowed to work with the president to achieve his agenda.
'President Musk' is not a new rumbling that is dominating the political narrative after Trump's election win but has been doing the rounds for quite some time.
Donald Trump has also reacted to these talks by dismissing them. Elon Musk thinks these are to create a wedge between him and President Trump.
The cover story said no other single private citizen before Elon Musk had such power over the government.
"Every other government bureau got the message loud and clear. No single private citizen, certainly not one whose wealth and web of businesses are directly subject to the oversight of federal authorities, has wielded such power over the machinery of the U.S. government.
So far, Musk appears accountable to no one but President Trump, who handed his campaign benefactor a sweeping mandate to bring the government in line with his agenda.
The cover story called the shutting down of the USAID the first ripples in a "massive antigovernment wave".
"Budgets will be hacked. Valuable programs will be eliminated. Career civil servants will be purged, replaced with political appointees whose primary qualification is apparent fealty to the President. This is the course the electorate chose. And to many, the idea of one of the world’s most accomplished entrepreneurs attacking a sprawling, sclerotic federal bureaucracy with the same velocity and determination he brought to his car startup or rocket company is cause for celebration, not alarm," it said.
