The DOGE Boys: the “Thinking Man’s” Trump Guy and the Men Who Make Them

The New American Elite and the System that Made Them

When I saw him in his deposition, the way he managed his hair, that tempest-in-a-teapot cowlick right above his eyebrow, the intensity of his eyes, the way his tee shirt peeked out of his crewneck sweater I wanted to punch him in the face. Hard. That is an unusual feeling for me. But watching Nate Cavanaugh, Elon Musk disciple, the man who relied on AI to cancel millions of dollars in research, a stranger, did elicit exactly this out of me.

I sat transfixed watching him admit that he had no experience. When questioners pressed him on his rationale, and whether he might have been wrong, he looked into the camera and said his justification rested in an executive order and in the goal of reducing the national debt. When they pushed harder, he admitted his understanding extended no further than following orders. And that goal, reducing the national debt, a small, almost imperceptible smirk before the admission that there was no mission accomplished. If this one-man show of research destruc…