A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 2/9/25
Decoding Fox News:
Last week the folks at Fox twisted themselves into knots to defend the actions of a maniacal corrupt billionaire hellbent on destroying entire government agencies without congressional oversight. They would never admit that their glorious leader, Donald J. Trump, was just a puppet for Elon Musk, a South African immigrant with extremist political leanings. During one of the celebrations involved with Donald J. Trump’s inauguration Musk performed a hand gesture that looked suspiciously like a Nazi salute. When Musk was criticized for it instead of apologizing or clarifying what he meant he posted several inappropriate jokes about Nazis on his social media platform X. Musk also enthusiastically backed an extremist staunchly anti-immigrant political party in Germany - the Alternative for Germany Party also known as AfD. At a recent rally for AfD Musk said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi era, "frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that." Musk has also publicly supported an extremist party in the UK. He’s also retweeted dozens of extremists on X (Twitter) as well as promoted several racist conspiracy theories. Openly pro-Nazi profiles have flourished on the X platform since Musk acquired it. Of course, no one on Fox News brought up Musk’s extremist political leanings. His actions to slash and burn entire government agencies were framed as saving money for American tax payers. [...]
Trump rewarded his benefactor with a position to helm the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a task force set up by the executive branch.
What is DOGE?
DOGE was created via an executive order on January 20, 2025
It is a task force not an official government agency
Elon Musk is a special government employee
This status means he is not required to file a public financial disclosure
He did not need to have a confirmation hearing by the House or Senate
This is no mechanism to prevent Musk from interfering with an agency that might benefit one of his six companies.
Musk is essentially policing himself.
Musk has billions of dollars of federal contracts with this companies SpaceX and Tesla.
DOGE seems to mirror many of the proposals in Project 2025
DOGE faces several lawsuits meant to limit its power
What Has DOGE Done So Far
Attempted to completely destroy USAID
Musk called the agency a criminal organization
Musk requested to cut off all payments to USAID four days into the Trump admin.
President Trump issued an executive order suspending all U.S. foreign assistance.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stop-work order for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Dozens of USAID’s top leaders were placed on immediate leave
Hundreds of employees have been let go.
The USAID website was taken down
The sign on the building USAID operated in has been covered up.
Offered a buyout to federal employees
Ended all remote work for federal employees
Claimed to have found fraud in various agencies - provided no evidence of fraud
Musk has claimed payments from Health and Human Services to various groups around the country are illegal.
DOGE employees gained access to the Department of Treasury payment systems
A federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing them.
Decoding Fox News has an excellent article on Fox “News” shilling for Elon Musk and DOGE.
From the 02.12.2025 edition of Decoding Fox News:
