I dont know how you americans see this. In europe at seems that Trump and Musk doing everything for to fight against democracy and freedom to encrease their own Power and influence.
I don't see it like you say Europe does. I see Trump getting rid of criminality and incompetence & Musk assisting with the process. We're only a month in and I expect to see criminals pursued and prosecuted now that the DOJ, FBI, Military and other leadership is coming into place and gearing up.
Over the past several admins IMO we've seen more and more testing of the courts via executive orders and ignoring of laws. It looks to me like Trump is willing to come in and push and test as well but is mostly getting rid of the shadow bureaucracy he has learned more about over the past 8 years.
We've known for many decades & longer that our Treasury was being looted. There have been studies and reports of ludicrous wastes of capital ("pork") as far back as I can remember. $4.5T of uncoded checks gone is a drop in the bucket IMO as is much of what we're seeing get exposed and shut down.
Democracy is a farce and ultimately has to be fought against or it causes what we now have. Too many of us are stupid and don't care as long as we can eat and play. Were the original citizens of a Constitutional Republic an elite that people complained about? People who went to church and had pressure from their neighbors to behave, and who owned property and businesses and thus had a vested interest in the nation and who therefore had an associated right to vote was a bad thing? Some of it was, but ideologically all of it?
I've been here long enough through an escalating downslide that I'm thankful for the shift and am hopeful that the rampant criminality and looting gets aggressively dealt with along with the other forms of depravity. There are some interesting theories about where we're headed. We'll see.