Following his first full, public cabinet meeting yesterday, President Trump issued a new executive order, the latest in a string of near-daily fusillade of political missile strikes, this one titled, “
Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Cost Efficiency Initiative.” It was a bureaucratic neutron bomb. The far-left UK Guardian ran the story under the headline, “
Trump signs executive order expanding power of Elon Musk’s Doge agency.”
A well-known problem plaguing the federal disbursement apparatus is that most of the work is done by career bureaucrats deep in the shadowy federal skunkworks. When a new president appoints some reformer to run a particular agency, if that person doesn’t know what to look for, well, good luck fine-tuning the accountability apparatus.
It was a very detailed order. The most significant part of the executive order was creation of a new centralized payment justification system, which introduced a brand new level of oversight and transparency into federal spending. Every single expense must be entered into the centralized system, along with a written rationale for its payment. These expenses and explanations will be publicly accessible.
And it gave politically appointed agency heads power to halt any expense having an insufficient rationale or that is inconsistent with the Administration’s priorities.
In other words, it creates a powerful discretionary veto over otherwise “routine” spending decisions normally processed deep in the federal bureaucracy. Agency heads, handpicked by Trump, can put the kibosh on any payments they dislike.
Imagine, for example, what kind of scrutiny might apply to payments to the World Economic Forum, or to leftist think tanks in DC.
The implications are potentially vast. It transforms agency heads’ illusory de jure authority into real de facto authority over their assigned agencies. By shining a public spotlight on expenses, the bureaucracy will become more risk-averse —much less prone to profligate spending— since it knows there could be political blowback for a particular grant or purchase. The order requires expense justifications to be publicly posted “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
There’s even more good stuff buried in the dense text of the order. It places new restrictions on non-essential travel, requiring federal workers to justify conference trips and reimbursements. It freezes all government-issued credit cards for 30 days (with certain exceptions). It requires agencies to look for ways to break fruitless leases, and to make plans for shedding unneeded real estate. It requires all Agency heads to review current contracts and grants and look for ways to terminate or renegotiate them to save money.
The days of easy federal money are over. This is a new era of bureaucratic Darwinism, where only the most politically adaptable, strategically compliant, and administratively savvy swamp creatures will survive. Swamp dwellers who live off federal government largesse are about to face some serious new challenges in their chosen profession. Grant grabbing and contract chasing just became a whole new
survival-of-the-fittest world.
Perhaps most interesting was a specific command for agencies to focus on contracts involving educational institutions and foreign entities for “waste, fraud, and abuse.” One presumes that DOGE has already identified these categories for special treatment.
It looks like universities —the intellectual arm of the administrative state— will soon learn a lesson from decades of opposing conservative reforms. They are about to attend a crash course in “FAFO 101.” It’s a mandatory, no-credits training course.
Americans trust Trump more than media; WaPo supports freedom and libs don't like it; jab injury Overton shift; military trans wars flame back up; Trump expands DOGE; MAHA order for hospitals; more.
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