Donald Trump and billionaire oligarch Elon Musk’s moves to shut down the foreign aid agency USAid and seize access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system have triggered what progressive lawmakers are calling a “constitutional crisis.”
After Musk publicly declared his intent to dismantle USAid, congressional Democrats attempted to enter the agency’s Washington headquarters on Monday but were turned away at the orders of Musk’s newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge). USAid workers were also locked out, as the White House confirmed plans to dissolve the agency and merge it into the State Department—a move that concentrates power further into the hands of Trump’s loyalists.
Standing outside the shuttered agency, Representative Ilhan Omar decried the move as a direct attack on the constitutional authority of Congress, which holds the power to allocate federal funds. “We are witnessing a constitutional crisis,” Omar stated. “Trump said he wanted to be a dictator on day one, and now we see what that actually looks like—shredding the Constitution, consolidating power, and installing unelected cronies to run essential government services.”
This power grab comes alongside alarming revelations that Musk’s operatives were granted access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, potentially exposing the personal data of millions of Americans. The system is critical for distributing Social Security checks, tax refunds, and Medicare benefits. Now, control over these funds appears to be in the hands of an unaccountable billionaire who spent nearly $300 million to secure Trump’s reelection.
Representative Greg Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, condemned the infiltration of the Treasury Department, stating, “Donald Trump has given unprecedented power over the federal government to an unelected, unaccountable billionaire. Progressives will fight this in the courts, on the House floor, and with every tool at our disposal until Elon Musk is out of our government and no longer putting taxpayers, the sick, and the elderly at risk.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren echoed the alarm in a letter to Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, demanding accountability for granting Musk’s team access to the financial infrastructure that handles trillions of dollars in transactions. Warren warned that this reckless move “puts the country at greater risk of defaulting on our debt, which could trigger a global financial crisis.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described Musk’s intervention as a “five-alarm fire” and a “grave threat to national security.” She called out the billionaire’s direct involvement in governance as a “plutocratic coup,” saying, “If you want the power, run for office and be chosen by the people. Short of that, this is an exercise in vigilantism.”
Trump’s ongoing dismantling of federal institutions in favor of billionaire rule is a direct attack on democracy itself. The attempted erasure of USAid and the reckless endangerment of the federal payment system are not just policy changes—they are steps toward a corporate authoritarian state where power is hoarded by the wealthy elite while the people’s voices are ignored. The question now is whether Congress and the courts will step in before irreparable damage is done.
