Seems like in all the chaos after the power transition in the US, this was largely missed: Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” will have access to all unclassified US government records.

It’s always the unassuming, irrelevant looking stuff like that that people need to pay attention to.

The rise of Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union really got going when he became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. At the time, the position was what it said on the can, a purely administrative job with no real political power.

Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, a position of Premier (roughly a “Prime Minister”) existed. Premiership was the ultimate post in the government and whoever held it was the leader of the country. At least initially.

Up until Stalin’s tenure, the position of General Secretary was not seen as important; definitely nowhere near as important as Premier. After Stalin, the premiership was either combined with General Secretary, or sidelined.

Through access to information and ability to make “technical” decisions that influenced political issues being the General Secretary gave him, Stalin took over. He only became the Premier in 1941 – nineteen years after having become General Secretary, and at least thirteen after he became the de facto leader of the country.

As dumb as the name of the Department of Government Efficiency is, with that kind of access to information DOGE can easily become the real power center in the middle of the US government bureaucracy.

Will Musk become the Great Leader thanks to DOGE? I doubt it. He’s too much of a pitifully thirsty edgelord. He’ll get bored of the necessary administrative work, and focus on getting as much money out of it as he possibly can. Or perhaps he gets the boot from Trump.

But keep this in mind. If the department survives, which it might, there will be somebody after Musk heading it. And nobody will be paying any attention to this silly-named, boring part of administration. Until, perhaps, there is no other choice.