America's New Restorative Fathers: How Elon's Experts Are Tackling Government Waste

The stock market is tumbling, tariffs are triggering uncertainty, and amidst it all, Donald Trump delivers a stark message to Americans: "Sometimes you have to take the medicine to fix it." This candid admission signals a dramatic shift from traditional political reassurances, acknowledging that economic transformation often requires temporary discomfort.

Meanwhile, a remarkable coalition of tech titans and business leaders has emerged under Elon Musk's leadership. Dubbed the "Restorative Fathers" by our host, these seven accomplished executives have put lucrative careers on pause to tackle government inefficiency through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their initial discoveries are staggering – 50-year-old computer systems managing Social Security, a single bank account handling all federal disbursements, and a mind-boggling $905 million contract for what one executive described as "a simple customer survey I could have done in high school."

The contrast couldn't be more striking: as markets nervously react to economic policy shifts, these private-sector innovators work behind the scenes addressing fundamental government waste. Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Steve Davis (SpaceX), and their colleagues aren't politicians – they're problem solvers applying Silicon Valley efficiency to bureaucratic bloat. Their mission transcends partisan politics; it's about preventing America from "going bankrupt," as one team member plainly stated. This unprecedented experiment raises a fascinating question: Can the entrepreneurial mindset that revolutionized technology now transform government itself? Share your thoughts on which business leader you'd add to the DOGE team, and join us weekly as we track this bold attempt to restore America's financial future.

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Thanks for listening! 

Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched!
Start for FREE

Chapters

• 0:29 Welcome to An Americanist Podcast
• 0:45 Trump's Tariffs and Market Response
• 1:26 Rolling Stone Article Analysis
• 3:22 Introduction to DOGE Initiative
• 4:43 The Seven DOGE Executives
• 9:44 Question of the Day

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Well, hello, good morning. Welcome back to an Americanist podcast, my rebrand Woo-hoo. I want to talk about tariffs and Doge today briefly, because you know I like to keep it under 10 minutes. Oh my gosh, y'all. What a thing these tariffs. It's been three days. Nothing has changed. Oh my gosh, it's horrible.

Speaker 1: 0:39

I know the conservative talk show host has received the message last week when they all started touting the same things let's give Donald Trump a chance. Let's give Donald Trump a chance. Well, I can guarantee you that after three days, they're going to have enough of that. You know the legacy media is going to come out and talk about they're not going to talk about the countries that are negotiating and deciding that. You know the legacy media is going to come out and talk about they're not going to talk about the countries that are negotiating and deciding that. Hey, maybe, you know, maybe we can work something out. They're not going to talk about that because that's not sexy headlines, so expect a mess of all kinds of messages.

Speaker 1: 1:12

But I want to talk about this Rolling Stone thing first. Rolling Stone has an article out Trump to america. As markets crash, sometimes you have to take the medicine. Now, rolling stone has always been critical of donald trump. I'm going to read a couple paragraphs. Uh, donald trump said sunday he is not deliberately tanking the stock market following his extreme tariff announcement. Last week, though, the president indicated it's okay if americans suffer as a result of his economic policies. Well, that's easy for him to say. He's the president. He didn't have to worry about anything.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, trump was asked if there was a level of pain in the markets he wasn't willing to tolerate. He called this question so stupid before saying I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take the medicine to fix it. I agree, but I know a lot of people are not going to be happy. We Americans are not willing to suffer anymore because we've had it so good for so long, so this is going to be interesting as we go along. He added, perhaps more optimistically, that eventually it's going to straighten out and our country will be solid and strong again. The message was a departure from Trump sharing and later resharing a link on Truth Social to a video claiming that he was purposely crashing the market. On Wednesday afternoon, trump announced sweeping tariffs that sent the markets tumbling Thursday and Friday. Us stock futures plunged again on Sunday evening and observers warned of a looming Black Monday. So the article goes on. I will put it out on my account. If you would like to go finish reading that, I'll put it on my Americanist blog x account, my x file.

Speaker 1: 3:08

But the next thing I want to talk about is Doge. They kind of go hand in hand. I mean, we are trying to majorly change some things, and isn't that what we've all been crying about here? We need change, we need cuts, we need this, we need that america first. Well, now that we're doing it, it is going to be. People are going to suffer a little bit. However, this is going to be, I think, boring to most people and I expect a huge distraction. Yes, I'm pulling a gl, a Glenn Beck. I'm predicting some kind of big distraction, all right, coming up just to get our minds off of this tariff thing and all of this.

Speaker 1: 3:49

All right, over here on my ex account, I want to talk about Doge from the New York Post article that Miranda Devine has written and I think you know I love her and you should go read it. I'm gonna try to narrow it down. I'm not gonna read the whole article, it's very long. It explains the seven executives that are helping Elon Musk meet Doge. Doge's patriotic musketeers, led by Elon in the belief that America needs their expertise now. So I'm going to try to do my very best and go break it down, scroll through and find these seven briefly, talk about them for just a minute. Here we go, blah, blah, blah and I did put this out on my ex account. I'm trying to find the first one here Joe, joe, gabia, gabia. Okay, oh my gosh, I can't read this. The billionaire okay, hold on, let me find this in a different print that I can read Bear with me. All right, excuse me, it's Joe Gebbia, g-e-b-b-i-a. I'm not going to be able to pronounce half of these men's last names.

Speaker 1: 4:54

The billionaire, co-founder of Airbnb and a close friend of Musk, has volunteered. Now has Airbnb been in some trouble not too long ago? He has volunteered at Doge to modernize the retirement process for federal government employees, contributing what he calls his designer brain and startup spirit. I think this is the guy that found that cave where they keep it all of the paperwork. It's not online at all. I loved the challenge, so I jumped on board. He told brett bear this is when they had brett bear had. They had them all in one room and interviewing them.

Speaker 1: 5:31

We're taking the best of silicon valley and business world, bringing it into the government. I'm here because it's an interesting problem. We can use design and good engineering to solve it and really create a better experience for everyone. All right, I'm going to go on to the next one. Steve Davis, an aerospace engineer, is Musk's top lieutenant from SpaceX and most recently ran Musk's boring company, the tunnel digging startup startup. He is the head of operations of doge. To have the country going bankrupt would be a very bad thing, he says. He and the others have put our lives on hold because we believe there is a chance to succeed. I love these men so far because they don't have to do this. They really don't. They could go off and enjoy their multi-million billionaire lives and they don't have to do this at all, but they are. So instead of calling them the founding fathers, because we already have founding fathers, I've decided to dub them the restorative fathers, because they're going to restore America back to what it was, but even better, all right.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Next one Tom Krause, a Silicon Valley CEO who has been in Musk's orbit for 15 years, joined Doge in January to apply public company standards to the federal government. That sounds big and bold and huge. He told Barry it was alarming to find only one bank account that's used to disperse all monies that go out on the federal government. Moving on to Aram oh my gosh, I'm going to butcher his last name. Aram Magahadasi is a young Silicon Valley software engineer who works for Musk's company Neuralink. He is embedded in the Social Security Administration, where the computer systems are over 50 years old. I believe this. Trust me, I've been in the Navy. All right, you know about him.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Move on to Brad Smith, a Nashville-based Rhodes Scholar Means he's smart, with degrees from Harvard and Oxford. Is a healthcare entrepreneur, so hopefully he's working with RFKJ. Is a healthcare entrepreneur, so hopefully he's working with RFKJ. He told Bayer his aim was to make 700 different IT systems at NH speak to each other. He also wants researchers to receive 85% of federal grant money rather than the current 60%, with the rest going to their universities.

Speaker 1: 7:58

Next up, anthony Armstrong is a former Morgan Stanley Tech banker who helped orchestrate Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now X. He serves as a senior advisor to the director of the Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's human resources department. His focus is on shrinking the federal workforce, thank you, by targeting duplicative functions. Oh, and, there's a lot of that in wasteful spending. He has a big job, all right.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Next up is Tyler Hassan is a Texas energy company executive who dropped everything to join Doge because he feels it is his patriotic duty. Thank you, sir. I was running the business from. I was running five businesses in Houston, he said and I left that to do this. And my wonderful wife said go for it. And here I am. This is my giving back to the country. Thank you, sir. He is embedded, like the department, in the Department of Interior. So he works with Bergen, maybe. Here he says under the Biden administration there was no department oversight whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 9:07

He waived a piece of paper in the interview a $905 million contract for a customer service survey. So so simple. I could have done this in high school. Okay, blah, blah, blah. Let's see. I think that's maybe. That's all it's out on my ex account.

Speaker 1: 9:25

If you want to go read about them, I think you should. It's very fascinating. All right, I'm coming up on 10 minutes. I got to do the question of the day. Okay, what billionaire, millionaire businessman would you like to see work with Doge to help the government reduce its size and spending. Also, liberty Line is still open for another week. I kind of bit off more than I could chew this weekend and I could not get it done, so we're going to leave that line open for another week. The topic is still who's your favorite US president in history or what is your favorite American moment from history? You can also send me whatever you want. Since it's the beginning, you can send me whatever you want. I hope this takes off and I hope we do a good job. It'll be once a week. All right, gotta go. Thank you for listening. Love y'all Bye.