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MAGA Media’s Musk-querade

Right-wing media stars once raged against “unelected elites” wielding government power—now, they’re fawning as Donald Trump hands Elon Musk the keys to federal agencies, despite glaring conflicts of interest.

Author

Oliver Darcy
March 19, 2025

Elon Musk. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

It’s prime time on cable news, and beneath the glow of the studio lights, a monologue erupts. The anchor excoriates the president for having “skirted the Senate confirmation process” and “empowered” unelected individuals “to oversee major offices within the federal government,” railing against a system where they “operate only under the supervision of the White House.” The words are dripping with indignation, warning of a government where power is handed to unvetted individuals, accountability is nonexistent, and a radical reshaping of the U.S. government is underway.

“In essence, a select group of unconfirmed, unvetted individuals are now at the helm of a shadow government right here in the U.S.,” the anchor warns.

It sounds like the kind of commentary you’d expect to hear on MSNBC from a host like Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Donnell, railing against Donald Trump’s decision to hand Elon Musk and his DOGE entourage unprecedented authority to disfigure the federal government—dismantling agencies, sidelining career officials, and wielding unchecked power. But the clip isn’t from 2025. It’s from Sean Hannity on Fox News in the summer of 2009, raging against Barack Obama’s appointment of so-called “czars.” Back then, right-wing media was…

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