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Tom Berry of Kennebunk is a retired public school teacher.
Whether one voted for Donald Trump or not, I expect that the vast majority of Americans would agree that we’ve gotten a lot more than we bargained for when it comes to Elon Musk. As has been reported in legitimate news media recently, Musk and his team of young hackers have been systematically gaining access to sensitive information at multiple key federal government agencies. These include: the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Treasury Department itself.
In effect, Musk — a foreign-born, unelected and unvetted billionaire — is energetically putting himself in a position to exert enormous influence over how U.S. taxpayers’ money could be spent in a wide range of programs, both domestically and around the globe. By infiltrating the Treasury Department — with the inexplicable assent of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — and the OPM and GSA, Musk and his crew now have access to a broad swath of financial information ranging from payment data for civil service and other federal employees all the way to sensitive, personal information of recipients of Social Security and Medicare benefits.
By unlawfully seizing operational control at USAID, Musk now has imperiled an independent, non-partisan agency that has been essential in providing humanitarian relief to people around the globe who have suffered disasters of all kinds. USAID has also provided support for development of democratic principles in countries where such principles are weak or lacking.
This agency, whose roots extend back to the post-World War II era, has been a constant and reliable presence — showing all people of the world the goodness and generous nature of the American people. In addition to being the right and compassionate thing to do when your neighbor is in trouble, the help provided by USAID has also been a way of persuading governments of those countries to align themselves with our country, as opposed to China or Russia.
This is what is known as “soft power” and has historically proved itself to be a very effective method for gaining not just gratitude from those nations, but also cooperation from them when U.S. interests arise in those regions.
One might well ask: “Why has Elon Musk embarked on this destruction of USAID?”
But, let us remember: this is a man whose vast fortune is largely based on his extensive business dealings with China and, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been in regular contact with Russia’s Vladimir Putin for years.
Given these facts, I have two questions: Where does Elon Musk’s allegiance truly lie? Is he working to better the lives of ordinary Americans or just himself and his oligarch friends.
I hope he is called before U.S. House and U.S. Senate committees to answer these and many other questions. One very good one would be the Senate Intelligence Committee, where both Sen. Susan Collins and Angus King sit!
