THE WIDE STATE — Elon Musk’s move-fast-and-break-things ethos has served him well so far in his efforts to demolish the federal bureaucracy. But now comes the moment the billionaire leading President Donald Trump’s DOGE initiative may not be prepared for — managing the politics of his sprawling cuts. The classic early signs of backlash are beginning to surface — a batch of worrisome polling, angry town hall scenes , protests — and congressional Republicans are beginning to get nervous . If the period of quiescence is truly coming to an end, Musk only has himself to blame. His brash statements and indiscriminate, chainsaw-wielding approach suggest a one-dimensional view that could prove costly to the party in power. Musk aired it last week in a joint interview with Trump on Fox News. “There’s an unelected, vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the Cabinet,” Musk told interviewer Sean Hannity. “And if you look at, say, D.C. voting, it’s 92 percent Kamala [Harris].” In other words, in Musk’s view, he’s on a mission to eliminate the Washington-based Democratic deep state. The trouble is, the federal government is a far more complex organism than he seems to recognize. Some agencies are more popular with the general public than others . There are distinct partisan differences in how various departments are perceived. The federal government’s reach also stretches well beyond the D.C. area. Its economic presence is felt acutely in every state and in all 435 congressional districts — not just through government transfer payments, but in terms of actual jobs. The two states with the largest Republican House delegations, Texas and Florida, are together home to almost a quarter-million federal government workers. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana-based district is home to almost 13,000 . Beyond the Beltway, across the blue and red state divide, there are IRS processing centers, Postal Service distribution centers, national laboratories, VA hospitals and cemeteries, missile sites, military installations, penitentiaries, national parks, historic sites and rural development offices, just to name a few of the federal outposts that stand to be affected by Musk’s massive firings and spending cuts. The political collateral damage of meat-axe style reform — not to mention the human toll — is just now sinking in for some of the members who represent those places. One of the reasons it took so long is that DOGE began by eviscerating an agency that lacked a significant domestic constituency outside Washington — USAID. Now that larger agencies with bigger footprints are on the firing line, the calculus is different. To date, Musk has been insulated by his proximity to Trump, as well as the impression that he is carrying out the president’s wishes. But the political education of Elon Musk is about to begin. He is about to be confronted by the reality that the federal government is more of a “wide state” than a “deep state.” And he’ll soon discover the imperatives of holding on to the GOP’s slim House majority. His relationship with Trump will also be tested if the DOGE blast radius continues to expand — presidents have a habit of throwing inconvenient allies under the bus. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie . WEST WING PLAYBOOK 2.0: One month in, it’s clear that Donald Trump’s second term is reshaping Washington in ways unseen since the New Deal. To track this seismic shift, we’ve relaunched West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government . Washington, remade: This new daily briefing will deliver blow-by-blow updates on Trump’s far-reaching efforts to overhaul federal agencies. From the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to the strategy being carried out by the Office of Management and Budget under Russ Vought and the resulting conflicts playing out in the courts and Capitol Hill, our reporters will be your guide to the unprecedented disruption hitting Washington. Sign up now to get it delivered straight to your inbox.
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