Donald Trump and Elon Musk are upending Washington. Good.
Not far from our place is a small street named after Rabbi Aryeh Levin. Rabbi Levin was very well known in his day, however modest a man he was. He was called the “Prisoners’ Rabbi” as he would meet with Jews arrested by the British and shuttle letters between them and their families on the outside. It was said that if a couple had marital problems, he would have them come over at 3 or 4 in the morning so that nobody would see them entering his home.
I once heard a talk by his grandson who grew up in the US. He said the following: “We can learn the potential of a person by the big things that he does. We can learn the quality of that person from the small things.” I thought about that expression in regards to both Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The president has built buildings all over the world and has performed the biggest political comeback in American history. The Knicks were down 20 in the third quarter of the NBA semifinals on Monday and came back to win. Donald Trump was down 200 in the fourth quarter and quashed Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party, their heavy donors and those in Washington who did not want to see the Orange Man again. Elon Musk built successful car, space and other companies from scratch and admitted that his likelihood for success with Tesla and SpaceX was less than 10%. Those are the big things.
But as to the small things, one often sees President Trump doing kindness to somebody neither rich nor famous. The young boy with brain cancer whom he hugged in the Oval Office or the soldier standing outside of Marine 1 whose hat blew off and the president went to get it and put it back on his head. Then there is Musk’s son, Lil X, who often accompanies his father to the White House and for whom Donald Trump has shown affection as they walked out together towards the presidential helicopter. One sees the private side of the president, and he can be very generous and caring.
When the Fox interview of DOGE programmers appeared last week, the first thing I noticed was that the young fellows were wearing jackets and ties. I am certain that during their long hours of work they wear tee shirts like their boss. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had planned to come in “Tech Support” or “Colonize Mars” shirts to the 10 pm interview. But Musk understood that these young men needed to be presentable to the American people. They are involved in a program similar to the Moon Shot or Manhattan Project. Their efforts to go through every line of the federal budget is critical to the continued solvency and existence of the United States of America. Elon Musk knows that DOGE is new and that it needs to be seen in a positive light by the voting American public. He made sure that his guys looked presentable and came off as regular Americans. Sure, people call Edward Coristine “Big Balls” but he sounded normal and articulate. And that is important if the massive federal budget is going to be cleaned up and made to serve the American people. I was happy to hear that there are many federal employees who are good at what they do and are glad to see DOGE come in and clean up their departments.
I thought about those young geniuses, including one who left Harvard over being harassed for his governmental work. Then I thought about their peers at US colleges. While not all students today are rabid pro-Hamas lunatics, there certainly seem to be a lot who are. So while these young men pore over billions of dollars of spending to determine if it is legitimate or not, their former friends from high school are screaming that the only Jewish state in the world must be destroyed and given to a bunch of rapists and child killers. On the one hand you have articulate patriots who could make a lot more money in the private sector; they spend their days and nights weeding out billions in waste, fraud, and theft. On the other hand, you have ideologically perverted kids who praise the mass rape and murder of civilians because they were Jews. This contrast could be run fully through the Republican and Democratic parties of today. Whereas the Democrats brought in millions of unvetted illegal aliens in order to create a de facto electoral majority for decades to come, the Republicans are trying to produce for the American people and thus earn continued leadership of the nation. The Democrats are furious at Musk for uncovering their NGO and other grifts that moved billions of dollars of tax funds to their favorite causes and individuals. They hate Trump for giving Musk the keys to the realm, and Musk must watch as people damage his cars for the “sin” of making America stronger.
I don’t know if the DOGE fellows wanted to show up to their interview as Musk did—in tee shirt under his jacket. But Musk understood that his guys needed to look serious and professional. Anecdotal stories of people long dead receiving Social Security or thousands of active government workers getting unemployment benefits show that the system is broken and desperately needs the DOGE treatment. Americans understand that spending is out of control and accept Musk’s efforts to get rid of waste and fraud.
Donald Trump is reflexively called by the left a dictator, though he has honored district court rulings against his executive orders. Elon Musk is accused of stealing Social Security funds, while having recently paid $11 billion in taxes—a record.
In true WWE fashion, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has lowered the boom on Harvard: get your affairs in order if you want to apply for new federal funding. I worked for years in research labs, and NIH and similar funding is the oxygen that keeps these places going. Harvard sits on a big pile of dough and it has deep-pocketed donors to help, but in the end it needs Uncle Sam’s money to keep competitive. I wish that Harvard students today were as serious, patriotic and impressive as the DOGE guys who spoke to Fox News. Harvard has become an intellectual and moral cesspool led by cowards and frauds. America’s future is with the DOGE posse and young people like them.
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