Trump’s cost-slashing Cultural Revolution risks harming U.S.
Defense and diplomacy not spared from Elon Musk-led purge of bureaucrats
Hiroyuki AKITA, Nikkei commentator
25 février 2025
TOKYO — U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is embarking on an unprecedented campaign of cost cuts in the federal government, designed to dramatically weaken the bureaucracy in the name of reform, with potentially global repercussions.
Elon Musk is heading this effort as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a temporary organization created by Trump’s executive order.
There is widespread shock in Washington over the restructuring. Budgets for important projects were abruptly cut, and government workers and employees of nongovernmental organizations worried that they could lose their jobs.
At Trump’s behest, Musk aims to significantly pare down the federal workforce from its current headcount of more than 2 million, and slash federal spending by over $1 trillion. The latter cuts would amount to more than half of all discretionary outlays, including spending on defense and foreign policy.
Musk is taking his task seriously. The administration sent an email to most government employees encouraging them to take « deferred resignations. » The U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees foreign aid and employed roughly 10,000 people, was temporarily forced to shut down. The Department of Defense is set to lay off 5,400 civilian workers this week.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Forest Service have fired more than 1,000 and over 3,000 employees still in their probationary periods, respectively, according to Reuters. The Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of Personnel Management have also issued layoff notices to probationary workers.
This has already gone beyond streamlining. The effort verges on effectively weakening the U.S. bureaucracy.
In China, between 1966 and 1976, Communist Party leader Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in a bid to shore up his control over the party, throwing the country into chaos. He stirred up young « Red Guards » through a cult of personality to persecute intellectual elites.
Pragmatist elites such as then-President Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were forced out of power, and government institutions and schools became crippled.
Though the scales involved are very different, some aspects of that time resemble what is happening in Washington now.
Trump perceives bureaucratic elites in the federal government as a potential threat to his grip on power. Many bureaucrats are believed to lean liberal, favoring the Democratic Party. Trump is using Musk as Mao’s Red Guard to purge workers who do not show sufficient loyalty.
The president is especially hostile toward diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the government, which broadened under previous President Joe Biden.
Many of Trump’s supporters believe members of racial or ethnic minority groups should not receive special consideration in government or corporate hiring. Musk also opposes DEI on the grounds that ability should be the top priority.
There is plenty of waste to be found in the enormous U.S. government, and its efficiency needs to be improved. Going too far with DEI can also cause harm. But drastic steps intended to destroy institutions risk weakening important functions of the government.
The impact on foreign policy is of particular concern. USAID has supported independent media and NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe and emerging countries to promote democracy. It has an annual budget of $40 billion.
Its shutdown was welcome news for China and Russia, which have opposed the agency’s work. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, praised it as a « smart move. »
The cuts extend as far as national security. The offer of deferred resignations went out to the entire Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. media reported.
According to a former senior official who handled national security policy during the first Trump administration, the president considers U.S. intelligence agencies to be political enemies, after he was suspected of colluding with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. A public investigation into the matter ended after finding no conclusive evidence.
Trump « believes the CIA leaked such information in an attempt to bring him down, » the former official said.
All eyes are on the impact on the Department of Defense and the military. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered defense budget cuts of 8% annually over the next five years. He has also dismissed top military officers who had been appointed under Biden.
« The development and procurement of weapons, which involves a huge budget, is expensive, and there is much room for greater efficiency, » a security expert close to Trump said.
But a former senior DoD official warned that « rushing to cut budgets without scrutiny could lead to a decline in deterrence. »
The best-case scenario for the U.S. and its allies would be a restructuring that improves the government’s efficiency and enables it to better compete against China and Russia.
« Mao’s and Trump’s methods are similar in that they both galvanized the masses in an attempt to destroy existing power structures, » said Wu Junhua, research director at Japan Research Institute and an expert in China’s internal affairs. « But the latter aims to streamline a bloated government. If he succeeds, the U.S. is likely to be revived as a superpower. China is probably watching with trepidation. »
China’s Cultural Revolution wasted 10 valuable years. Trump should use its failures as a cautionary tale.