The Democracy Papers: Paper Thirteen

The Hostile Takeover of the Federal Government

What happens when powerful elites don’t just influence the federal government but seize it outright? Not to govern, not to serve but to dismantle it piece by fucking piece. What happens when billionaires and corporate operatives, backed by shadowy think tanks and dark money groups, execute a coordinated plan to gut democratic institutions, purge career professionals and consolidate power into the hands of a chosen few?

This isn’t a warning about what could happen. It’s happening right now, in plain sight. The destruction of our civil service isn’t a side effect of ineffective or inexperienced leadership, it’s the goal. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s step-by-step blueprint for dismantling democracy, is being executed in real time.

The Weaponization of USDS and Musk’s Role

Elon Musk’s hostile takeover of the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) is one of the most underreported yet deeply dangerous aspects of this coup. What was once an independent team of nonpartisan technologists dedicated to modernizing government infrastructure has been co-opted into a weapon of control.

Trump and Musk loyalists have been installed at every level and have been tasked with dismantling existing security protocols while former government watchdogs and security professionals have been ousted.

Federal databases are being consolidated under opaque “modernization” initiatives, giving the administration unprecedented access to personal and financial records of both citizens and federal employees.

Musk’s direct influence over infrastructure, including government cloud services, communications platforms and even military-adjacent technology, puts national security at risk while funneling power directly into the hands of the executive branch with zero insight OR oversight.

This isn’t modernization. It’s an insider coup, an attempt to seize control over the nation’s digital infrastructure under the guise of progress. Control the data, control the people. And Musk, along with the ruling faction, now controls both.

Mass Firings, Fealty Tests and the Great Purge

The administration’s Reduction in Force (RIF) orders are not about cost reduction. They are a political purge. Full stop. Under the guise of “cutting bureaucracy,” tens of thousands of career federal employees are being fired, many of them professionals with decades of experience in defense, cybersecurity and public service.

New hires and even existing employees must undergo loyalty screenings, including forced lie detector tests, ideological questionnaires and mandatory NDAs designed to silence dissent. Meanwhile, the Hatch Act is being completely ignored. The law that once prevented political coercion in federal employment has been effectively sidelined, as agencies are purged of anyone deemed insufficiently loyal.

Those who remain are paralyzed by fear, knowing that any deviation from the administration’s demands will result in termination, public retaliation or worse. This is not government, this is regime consolidation, and it’s happening at a scale that dwarfs anything we've seen in all of American history.

Project 2025: The Master Plan in Motion

If you want to know what happens next, look no further than Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for a total executive takeover of the federal government. Everything unfolding now was written in its pages and published well before the election.

They seek destruction of the civil service and by eliminating career professionals, the administration can replace them with unqualified but loyal political appointees who serve not the people but the regime. This isn’t a looming danger. It’s an active operation, unfolding in real time. And if they aren’t stopped now, we won’t ever be able to undo the damage.

Regulatory bodies like the EPA, the FDA and the SEC are being hollowed out or outright eliminated, paving the way for unchecked corporate exploitation and personal agendas. Other departments like Treasury, now packed with loyalists, are being systematically weaponized. Under the guise of 'fiscal responsibility,' they are gutting social programs, halting federal aid and redirecting billions into private contracts with administration-friendly firms. Agencies are being starved of funding, forcing states to either pick up the burden or let critical services collapse. The economic pain isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. A desperate, struggling population is easier to control because when people are too busy scraping by, they don’t have time to fight back.

Where Do We Go From Here?

This is not a simple policy dispute or business as usual. This an honest-to-god emergency. An existential fight for the survival of American democracy.

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." Alice Walker

We need to call this what it is. A full-scale authoritarian purge, an attempt to replace democracy with a regime built on loyalty, fear and unchecked power. More than ever, we need to support federal employees resisting from within, whistleblowers and career civil servants fighting back are our last line of defense.

We need to demand Congressional intervention, because if lawmakers don’t act now, they may not have a government left to serve. And we need to prepare for direct action. If government institutions are captured and weaponized against the people, we must be ready to resist, through legal means, civil disobedience and public mobilization.

We are witnessing our government being torn down from the inside, out. If we don’t fight back, we won’t just lose our institutions, we’ll lose our entire country. And when the dust finally settles, there will be no one left to remember what it was that we lost.