‘This is a coup’: Trump and Musk’s purge is cutting more than costs, say experts

In slashing staff and disabling entire agencies the administration is lacerating the structures of US democracy

Donald Trump and Elon Musk's radical drive to slash billions of dollars in annual federal spending with huge job and regulatory cuts is spurring charges that they have made illegal moves while undercutting congressional and judicial powers, say legal experts, Democrats and state attorneys general.

Trump's fusillade of executive orders expanding his powers in some extreme ways in his cost-cutting fervor, coupled with unprecedented drives by the Musk-led so-called department of government efficiency" (Doge) to slash many agency workforces and regulations, have created chaos across the US government and raised fears of a threat to US democracy.