A THOUSAND CUTS

THE STANDOFF AT 1300 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE was not much of a spectacle.

- BY SIMON SHUSTER AND BRIAN BENNETT

On the first day of February, a handful of men working for Elon Musk had come to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a few blocks from the White House, demanding full access to its headquarters. The agency's staff refused. No guns were drawn. No punches thrown.

Nobody involved the police. But in these early days of the Trump Administration, perhaps no other scene revealed more clearly the forces reshaping America's government.

On one side stood an institution with a 64-year history, a $35 billion budget, and a mission enshrined in federal law.

On the other stood Musk's political wrecking crew. They identified themselves as members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a collection of temporary staffers with no charter, no website, and no clear legal authority.

Its power derives from Musk, the wealthiest person on the planet, who has been deputized to dismantle vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy-slashing budgets, gutting the civil service, and stripping independent agencies of the ability to impede the President's objectives.