Musk takes the presidency of the United States to "replace Trump": What does the cover of Time magazine want to reveal

Here is the English translation of the text, with the specified terms translated as requested: On 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, the impasse did not attract much attention. On February 1, a team from Elon Musk's camp arrived at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), just a few blocks from the White House, and demanded full access to its headquarters. USAID staff refused their request. There was no gunfire, no physical confrontation, and no police intervention. But in those early days of the Trump administration, perhaps no other scene could more clearly reveal the forces reshaping the U.S. government. On one side was an institution with a 64-year history, a $35 billion budget, and a mission enshrined in federal law. On the other was Musk's political "disruptor squad" - members who call themselves the "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)," a temporary team with no charter, no website, and no clear legal authorization. Its power comes from Musk, the world's richest person, who has been empowered to overhaul the federal government's vast bureaucracy - slashing budgets, firing civil servants, and stripping independent agencies of their ability to obstruct the President's goals. USAID's leadership acquiesced to Musk's team - a group of young, passionate followers - entering its headquarters in late January. Some USAID officials privately referred to them as the "DOGE boys." These young people, armed with clipboards, roamed the corridors, inspected desks, and interrogated managers. However, as the weekend approached, their demands - including access to sensitive facilities used to store classified information - exceeded the tolerance of USAID's security chief. DOGE members threatened to call in U.S. Marshals to clear the building. They also reported the issue to Musk. Musk then posted on his social media platform X to his 215 million followers, stating, "USAID is a criminal organization, and it's time for it to disappear." It is unclear why Musk launched this "purge." Nevertheless, by the next morning, this institution that annually allocates billions of dollars globally to combat famine, disease, and provide clean water to millions was nearly paralyzed. Within a week, nearly all employees were forced to take leave, and its global offices were shut down. Other government agencies have also received clear messages. No ordinary citizen, especially those whose wealth and business networks are directly subject to federal oversight, can wield such power over U.S. government institutions. So far, Musk seems to be accountable only to former President Trump, who has granted his campaign donor a broad mandate to align the government with his agenda. DOGE referred all of Time magazine's questions about their work to the White House, which declined to comment. Musk's team has already taken control of the U.S. Digital Service and established a foothold within the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) - the federal human resources department. The Department of Education is on edge, fearing imminent "self-castration" orders. It seems few agencies are safe. Musk has made it clear he will tolerate no dissent, no matter how justified. Just days before the "dramatic incident" at USAID, a Treasury official refused to allow Musk's team access to the U.S. federal payment system. That official was forced to retire, and the newly appointed Treasury Secretary, Scott Basson, met Musk's team's demands. After a group of current and former employees filed a lawsuit, the government agreed on February 5th to restrict that access, at least temporarily. These are just the initial ripples in a massive anti-government wave. Budgets will be slashed, valuable programs canceled, career civil servants fired, and replaced with political appointees whose primary qualification is loyalty to the President - the path chosen by the voters. For many, the idea of one of the world's most accomplished entrepreneurs, with the speed and determination he brought to founding his car or rocket companies, attacking a vast and ossified federal bureaucracy, is something to celebrate, not worry about. "The federal government is so large, there must be significant opportunities for savings and efficiency improvements," said Robert Doar, president of the center-right American Enterprise Institute. "The President and his team are giving this a lot of attention, and that's a good thing." However, strong public backlash may be brewing, and the stakes are far greater than the size of the federal balance sheet, the headcount of agencies in Washington, D.C., or the dangers of an unelected person wielding such unconstrained power. Americans will soon discover that the way they interact with the federal government is something they have taken for granted or assumed was a given. Companies exporting technology products to China may no longer have State Department or Commerce Department employees explaining how to avoid violating criminal law. Farmers in the U.S. Midwest may soon find that USAID-funded buyers no longer pay for flour shipped to refugee camps. Across the globe, the hundreds of millions who rely on the U.S. for food, medicine, and shelter will suddenly be on their own. Currently, millions of government workers find themselves at the mercy of Musk. One Homeland Security employee described her team as being in a "defensive posture" while awaiting Musk's team's visit. To understand their fate, she said, her colleagues have turned to a book called Character Limit, which documents Musk's takeover of Twitter two years ago and the resulting chaos and lasting consequences of firing 80% of the staff. His overhaul of the bureaucracy bears a striking resemblance to that situation. On January 28th, millions of federal civil servants received an email offering them eight months' pay in exchange for their resignation. Musk made a similar offer to Twitter employees two years ago, even using the same subject line: "The Crossroads."

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Everything has a traceable origin. Among Musk's friends in Silicon Valley, many understand that his acquisition of Twitter is to prepare for a greater cause. "The current atmosphere is that people hope Musk can do the same thing to the US government," an informed source told Time magazine in November. Senior officials from Trump's first administration had also devised their plan long before the election and published a 900-page report called "Project 2025". One of the main authors of the project, Russell Vought, said in a speech two years ago that he hoped the civil servants would be "traumatically impacted" by the envisioned purge, "We want their funding to be cut off," he said. "We want to traumatize them."

During the campaign, Trump swore he was not involved with the plan, "It's inappropriate for them to have put out a file like that," he told Time magazine in November. "There are some things I strongly object to." But once in office, he chose Vought to head the White House Office of Management and Budget, which is now closely collaborating with Musk to implement key parts of Project 2025. So far, according to Time magazine's analysis, Trump's frenzied initial actions during his presidency have nearly achieved two-thirds of its provisions.

Musk has never hidden his intentions. Two weeks after the election, he co-wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal, promising that his team would help Trump "hire a lean team of small-government crusaders" who would work to "drastically reduce the number of federal bureaucrats". The recruitment drive began shortly after the election, recruiting from Musk's followers in Silicon Valley, some of whom had just graduated from college and were ready to be dispersed across Washington.

The DOGE personnel manager appointed by Musk is aerospace engineer Steve Davis, who previously led Musk's cost-cutting efforts at Twitter. In late December, as the presidential transition unfolded in the White House, Davis attended a series of meetings with members of the Biden administration. Democratic staffers noticed he was very interested in an obscure branch of the White House, the US Digital Service (USDS). Davis wanted to know how it operates, who it reports to, and what it can access.

The US Digital Service was established in 2014 to work with federal agencies to improve computer systems and databases. It has a map of the government's technology infrastructure and a touchpoint with the tech officials of almost every federal agency. This makes it the perfect venue to host Musk's team. By controlling the USDS, Musk's team can access the federal government's critical systems and implement massive layoffs and budget cuts, like "poison" flowing through the "veins" to gradually weaken the entire government's operations.

The power of the US Digital Service began on Inauguration Day. One of Trump's earliest executive orders renamed it the "Musk US Service", cleverly retaining the office's acronym. The order also ensured the new entity would report directly to the White House Chief of Staff. Since then, the office has set up outposts at the State Department and Treasury. It has begun accessing personnel computer systems, firing contractors, and blocking payments to them.

Musk also sent a team to the Office of Personnel Management. The office has records of 2.1 million workers, nearly every federal employee's email address, and tracks $59 billion in annual federal healthcare premiums and $88 billion in annual federal pension payments. According to a source familiar with these actions, the move to issue "mass buyout offers" to government employees originated from Musk's team within the Office of Personnel Management. (Both the Musk team and the White House declined to comment.)

Next, the Musk team began cutting funding to the Office of Personnel Management itself. Brian Birdwell, who recently served as vice president of human resources at Musk's aerospace company, told the Office of Personnel Management's career executives that the goal is to cut 70% of its staff, which would weaken its healthcare benefits and retirement plan teams, a current OPM official said.

Some senior OPM leaders have been locked out of critical databases, the official said, with political appointees able to access systems including corporate human resources integration without the standard safeguard protocols intended to protect such private information. The system includes data such as pay grades, years of service, Social Security numbers, birth dates, and home addresses.

Within days of Trump taking office, the White House ordered a freeze on federal spending — from foreign aid to public health programs, and everything in between. The government said the freeze would only be lifted when agencies aligned with the president's agenda: cracking down on immigration, ending diversity efforts, and halting investments to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels. Facing lawsuits, the White House rescinded the order.

Protest outside the US Treasury Department building in Washington, DC on February 4.

Musk's layoff actions continue, with Trump continuing to give him his blessings. "Musk can't do anything without our approval — and he won't do anything," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on February 4. "We'll give him approval at the right time," he added. "In the wrong places, we won't."

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Some believe that Trump may restrain Musk's actions to prevent him from being too radical, but the civil servants are not waiting for this to happen. In northern Virginia, where tens of thousands of federal government employees and military personnel live, the typical town hall meeting in the town of Leesburg, Virginia attracted dozens of people, and hundreds gathered on the night Musk shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "We've heard some strange stories," said local Democratic Congressman Suhash Subramanyam, who spoke at the event. Due to the large number of workers flooding his office, describing the Musk team's takeover actions, he instructed his staff to document these testimonies and assist the whistleblowers. Subramanyam told Time magazine that most of what they witnessed was "simply illegal." "We're almost being tested, and being goaded into suing or investigating."

Some lawsuits have indeed worked. The White House has complied with a court order to block its attempt to freeze billions of dollars in federal spending. A judge in a February 6 ruling delayed the final deadline for the government's offer to employees. Union representatives have sued the federal workers on behalf of the Musk team. Even Musk's usual worshipers have warned that he has gone too far. A February 4 Wall Street Journal editorial noted that "lawsuits are piling up," and "if Mr. Musk isn't careful, the courts will disrupt his project before it even gets off the ground."

On Capitol Hill, Musk's attack on the bureaucracy has sparked a battle between him and the Democrats that could determine the future of the government and the balance of power within it. On the afternoon of February 3, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin told a crowd outside USAID, "We don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk." At the same time, Musk's team (DOGE) was trying to forcibly implement their plans inside USAID.

Jamie Raskin is right. But the agency employees listening to him on Pennsylvania Avenue are unsure whether they can keep their jobs, unable to judge how much power Musk has gained and whether he will make other government agencies submit to his will. One employee seemed particularly doubtful. Yes, she told Time magazine, the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. But Musk has already shown the power to deprive it of that power.

"There's only so much the Democrats can do," she said, unwilling to reveal her name for fear of drawing more attention from DOGE. Her official email account has been shut down, and she can no longer access her office desk. Like thousands of her colleagues and millions of Americans, she can only watch helplessly as Musk's actions unfold, wondering how far he will go, and what - if anything - can stop him?