The USAID was somewhat of a warmup.
DOGE has also turned its spotlight on the Treasury Department, which makes perfect sense if you’re trying to figure out where the money gets spent and where it gets wasted. A federal judge of the leftist variety has temporarily blocked their efforts:
In an egregious and unconstitutional assault on executive authority, Judge Paul Engelmayer has unilaterally forbidden all of Trump’s political appointees—including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—from accessing Treasury Department data. This ruling, concocted without legal precedent or constitutional justification, is nothing short of judicial sabotage. Worse, it was issued ex parte—meaning Trump administration lawyers weren’t given notice, weren’t allowed to argue, and weren’t even in the room. Only Democrat attorneys general were heard, ensuring a predetermined outcome.
Engelmayer’s order is legally indefensible. He cites no statutory basis because none exists. He offers no constitutional rationale because the Constitution directly contradicts him. Instead, he fabricates a fiction: that the duly appointed Treasury Secretary is nothing more than a ceremonial figurehead, akin to a powerless monarch, while unelected bureaucrats—who answer to no voters—control the nation’s finances. This is judicial tyranny masquerading as jurisprudence.
The implications are staggering. By stripping the executive branch of access to its own financial data, this ruling effectively transfers control of the federal purse to the permanent bureaucracy—the so-called “deep state.” That is a direct assault on the Constitution’s separation of powers, which vests executive authority in the elected President and his appointees, not in career government employees.
This is lawfare at its most brazen: a raw, partisan power grab dressed up in legalese. If allowed to stand, this decision sets the precedent that any left-wing judge can unilaterally strip the President of his authority and hand it to the administrative state. That is not democracy. It is not law. It is judicial dictatorship.
It’s only for a week, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be extended. It’s at the very least a delaying tactic, and of course the administration is challenging it:
In an Emergency Motion to Dissolve the TRO, filed early this morning, the Trump administration demonstrates not just the legal impropriety of the Judicial Branch removing political control from the Executive Branch, but also that there was no widespread access by political appointees. The Emergency Motion only addresses the removal of authority from political appointees, the underlying merits will be addressed in papers in opposition to the plaintiffs’ overall motion. …
There was no emergency. There was no threat to personal information. There was none of the drama the plaintiffs’ motion papers invoked and the emergency duty judge used to justify the political interference by the judiciary in the functioning of the Treasury Department.
So far, one of the major Treasury Department problems revealed is the extent of the department’s failure to address fraud:
… in a Saturday post on X, [Musk] wrote:
Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over $100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.
When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!! This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.
What was being done about it? Very little, apparently; here’s Musk’s explanation of the reason for that:
Nobody in Treasury management cared enough before. I do want to credit the working-level people in the Treasury who have wanted to do this for many years but have been stopped by prior management.
Everything at Treasury was geared towards complaint minimization. People [who] receive money don’t complain, but people who don’t receive money (especially fraudsters) complain very loudly, so the fraud was allowed to continue.
That makes a certain amount of twisted sense. The focus was not on saving money for the taxpayer. The focus was on the smooth running of the department, and so the path of least resistance was chosen.
Musk said that the Treasury Department has agreed to require a payment categorization code (which helps with audits), a rationale for the payment, and a do-not-pay list of entities found to be fraudulent. These are so basic as to be – one would think – no-brainers. But apparently they are new policies.
And then there’s also this article, explaining some of the workings of DOGE. If true – and I think it’s mostly true, anyway – it’s fascinating:
The following is about plans that were made prior to the election
While media focused on campaign rallies and political theater, a quiet army was being assembled. In offices across DC, veteran strategists mapped the administrative state’s pressure points. Think tanks developed action plans for every agency. Policy institutes trained rapid deployment teams. Former appointees shared battlefield intelligence from previous administrations’ failures.
By Inauguration Day, over 1,000 pre-vetted personnel stood ready—each armed with clear objectives, mapped legal authorities, and direct lines to support networks. This wasn’t just staffing; it was a battle plan decades in the making.
Not your father’s GOP.
More:
The secret wasn’t just speed—it was precision. Instead of waiting for Senate confirmations, the transition team prioritized non-Senate-confirmed positions. …
This urgency drove innovation. When DOGE’s young coders breached Treasury’s payment systems, pre-positioned legal teams neutralized resistance within hours. When career officials tried revoking system access, they discovered DOGE’s authority came from levels they couldn’t challenge. When leaks surfaced, rapid-response units fed counter-narratives to alternative media almost instantly.
There was a reason USAID was targeted early:
Created by Executive Order in 1961, USAID could be dissolved with a single presidential signature. No congressional approval needed. No court challenges possible. Just one pen stroke, and six decades of carefully constructed financial networks would face sunlight. …
EPA climate initiatives? Not just mapped—found unauthorized programs in 47 states. Education’s DEI maze? Not just exposed—revealed coordination across 1,200 programs. Intelligence community black budgets? Not just traced—uncovered patterns hidden for 30 years.
“The administrative state runs on two things,” a senior advisor explained, watching patterns emerge across DOGE’s screens. “Control of information and money flows.” His eyes tracked new connections forming in real-time. “We’re not just exposing their networks—we’re rewriting their DNA.”
They bureaucrats have gotten very very used to secrecy and consider it their right. So to them, DOGE’s investigations are terrible terrible violations that threaten all their work. Of course, the fact that USAID exists at the whim of the executive is forgotten.
More:
For the permanent bureaucracy, this wasn’t just change. It was an extinction-level event. Their power came from controlling who got paid, when they got paid, and what they got paid for. Now those controls were evaporating like dawn burning away darkness.
The pattern was devastating in its simplicity:
(1) Map the money flows
(2) Deploy aligned personnel
(3) Expose the networks
(4) Restructure the systems
There’s much much more at the link. According to the article, one of the side effects has been the unleashing of money for some local projects that had previously been stalled by red tape.
As the ever-eloquent President Biden would say, all of this seems like a big F***ing deal.
[ADDENDUM: More lawfare against Trump here.]
