In 2017, at the beginning of the first Trump administration, I wrote an American Thinker piece titled “Donald Trump, the (Un)Masked Magician,” The essay compared Trump to the Masked Magician, the 1990s TV show in which a masked magician revealed the secrets of how certain magic tricks were performed.

This show infuriated professional magicians who saw a threat to their livelihoods. Trump did the same thing to the swamp creatures of DC by exposing their shenanigans and sleight-of-hand. And in his second administration, Elon Musk is now filling the (Un)Masked Magician’s Apprentice role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Picking up from where Trump left off, Musk is now exposing the sleight-of-hand budgeting tricks of the permanent bureaucracy, also known as the Deep State. Musk and his team are uncovering the Democrats’ brazen attempts to bury their far-Left projects in complex budget bills, and Democrats are howling. Most of these appropriations are quite outrageous.

Image by Grok.

Examples of abuse in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) illustrate why this agency is in the process of effectively being shut down:

• “$1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• “$70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• “$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
• “$47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• “$32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• “$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala

Regardless of what one thinks of Musk, he is performing a necessary service that others are unable or unwilling to undertake. His status as the richest person in the world makes it impossible to cancel him, a situation that has frustrated his opponents in the establishment of both parties who are comfortable with the status quo. They have grown increasingly furious as he exposes their budgetary sleight-of-hand and deception.

And now the long knives have come out for Musk. The Left has unleashed its shock troops on Musk’s business interests, particularly Tesla. The EV company’s dealerships are now experiencing widespread vandalism directed at the vehicles and buildings. The radicals are back to their slash-and-burn playbook of 2020. That’s no surprise, but Americans have grown tired of their shenanigans. These “protesters” are facing serious felony charges and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to discourage further mayhem.

As Musk and his team continue to unearth these stories of apparent fiscal abuse, FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi stand ready to investigate any evidence of kickbacks and bribery that may come to light. The offenders need to be arrested and brought to justice as a deterrent to malfeasance in the future. They were emboldened by decades of congressional oversight neglect, but that era is over.

In the tradition of (un)masked magician Donald Trump, Elon Musk continues to expose the tricks and budgetary hocus pocus that the Left has honed to a fine art. As the Democrats are finding out, once their secrets have been exposed it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to pull the wool over voters’ eyes again.

Michael A. Bertolone, M.S. is a past executive V.P. of the Monroe County (N.Y.) Law Enforcement Association and a freelance writer in Rochester, N.Y. His eBook, The War on Equality: How Equity is Destroying Our Society, is available on Amazon.