The New Managerialism

Is Elon Musk’s DOGE the 21st Century’s Milner Group?

By guest author Hitman.

On the 2nd of February, Wired journalist Vittoria Elliott published an article titled “The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover.”¹ She reveals the names of six employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), two of whom are former employees of Musk at Tesla and two others who have a connection to Musk’s business partner and entrepreneur, Peter Thiel. Though I’m happy that Musk has chosen to give these fine young men a chance, and certainly that’s how many in our sphere feel, it’s important to understand the wider ramifications of the role these young men play and the future of the American bureaucracy in the 21st century.

As a new temporary government organisation in the Trump administration, DOGE has been created with the aim to “modernise federal technology and software to maximise governmental efficiency and productivity.”² President Trump has also stated that the purpose of DOGE is to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”³ These proposals are very similar to the actions taken by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, and will be necessary in order to purge the federal government of deep state loyalists.

Musk, as the hiring of these young men shows, is being presented with a unique opportunity to create a cadre of techbro loyalists within the federal government to replace their predecessors. However, it is important to consider two things. First, while Musk is the face of DOGE, he is not operating alone, but essentially as part of a wider elite class of tech billionaires dubbed the “PayPal Mafia.” This is a view that has been developed by online commentators like Kingpilled. This group includes other influential figures like Thiel, whom I mentioned previously, and the current Vice President, J.D. Vance. Second, the techbro personnel hired at DOGE may be more loyal to Musk and the PayPal Mafia, and not necessarily to Trump. There is a possibility that the President is allowing a rival castle to emerge under his own feet. To illustrate this dynamic, as well as the benefits and pitfalls of this scheme, even further, we have a historical example which Musk is potentially emulating, from Musk’s home country of South Africa: The Milner Group.

The Kindergarten

In 1897, Lord Alfred Milner was appointed by the British government as High Commissioner for Southern Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony. He would serve in these positions until 1901, when he would become the governor of the recently conquered Boer republics during the Second Anglo-Boer War. As High Commissioner, Milner patronised a group of young men who became known as “Milner’s Kindergarten.” The goal of these men was to take over the various institutions within South Africa, principally to help the Boers rebuild after the war. However, in reality, their actual aim was to use their positions to gather support for the creation of a federal government for all the South African colonies. They were partially successful. South Africa became a Dominion of Great Britain, but as a unitary state and not a federal state, which they desired. A federal state was preferred, as it would limit Boer dominance in the country to just the two territories of the former Orange River and South African (Transvaal) republics. A unitary state ensured that the Boers could play a prominent political role, since they were still the demographic majority.

After 1910, the members of Milner’s Kindergarten founded the Round Table Group which would publish the annual Round Table Journal, a publication they released to argue for a federal restructuring of the British Empire. The Kindergarten supported this because they wanted to ensure strong ties between Britain and her Dominions so that they would support her in any future wars. The Kindergarten also supported granting Dominion status to colonies such as India, as they believed in the benefits of “responsible government.” This term is essentially a buzzword similar to how the current regime uses the term “democracy” to mean progressive managerial governance. To buttress this point, Carroll Quigley had the following to say:

Milner, in his distaste for party politics and for the parliamentary system, and in his emphasis on administration for social welfare, national unity, and imperial federation, was an early example of what James Burnham has called the “managerial revolution” — that is, the growth of a group of managers, behind the scenes and beyond the control of public opinion, who seek effectively to obtain what they regard as good for the people. To a considerable extent this point of view became part of the ideology of the Milner Group, although not of its most articulate members, like Lionel Curtis who continued to regard democracy as a good in itself.⁴

Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner

It is important to understand the potential parallels between Musk and Milner. The latter was able to become a powerful patron as a result of an intersection of three factors. Firstly, there was a financial factor, as Milner was a wealthy financier, and he was the chief executor of Cecil Rhodes’s will, giving him control of a vast inheritance which was used to set up the Rhodes Scholarships. Secondly, there was a political factor, as Milner himself had ties with the “Cecil bloc,” a faction within the British establishment at the time led by Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, better known as Lord Salisbury. It was another member of the bloc, Joseph Chamberlain, serving as the Colonial Secretary, on whose recommendation Milner was appointed High Commissioner for Southern Africa. Finally, there is the intellectual factor: whilst at Oxford, Milner befriended fellow student and future academic Arnold Toynbee (uncle of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee), who would prove influential to his worldview. We can see that all three of these aforementioned factors are present when we look at Musk: financially, he is the richest man on Earth and a central node in the PayPal Mafia club of billionaires; politically, he has become a staunch ally to President Trump, whose campaign he actively funded and promoted through X; and intellectually, many of his associates in the PayPal Mafia, particularly Thiel, have directly cited the ideas of Curtis Yarvin on government.

Lord Milner and Joseph Chamberlain (seated in middle) in Johannesburg, South Africa, January 1903

One caveat to this thesis is that Musk does not share Milner’s well-known scepticism towards electoral politics. Musk, by all appearances, is still at heart a liberal democrat. He is not as radical as his friend Thiel, who famously said, “Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”⁵ And he would strongly oppose Milner’s sympathetic view of socialism. To quote the latter directly:

Not only am I an Imperialist of the deepest dye — and Imperialism, you know, is out of fashion — but I actually believe in universal military training… I am unable to join in the hue and cry against socialism. That there is an odious form of socialism I admit, a Socialism which attacks wealth simply because it is wealth, and lives on the cultivation of class hatred. But that is not the whole story; most assuredly not. There is a nobler Socialism, which so far from springing from envy, hatred and uncharitableness, is born of genuine sympathy and a lofty and wise conception of what it is meant by national life.⁶

To summarise, Musk is a self-interested entrepreneur, whilst Milner was a paternalistic aristocrat.

In terms of wider comparisons between the Milner Group and the PayPal Mafia, one point to make is their management of assets under their control. Musk’s takeover of X, formerly Twitter, means that the group controls arguably the world’s largest and most influential social media platform, allowing them to manage and influence public opinion towards their own ends. By contrast, the Milner Group’s control of the Round Table Group, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), and the Times newspaper was employed to influence elite opinion rather than public opinion.

Milner’s Kindergarten, c. 1902

Another significant comparison is the high levels of education and achievement in both groups. Many of the Kindergarten members were graduates of New College and Oxford, with many becoming fellows at All Souls College, Oxford’s post-graduate institute. Many became wealthy and hugely influential in media, politics, and business. With the PayPal Mafia, three members and one associate are graduates of Ivy League colleges (Musk, Vance, Ramaswamy, Yarvin). I do not need to list the accomplishments of these men, as they are almost all household names today.

Our New Managers

While we’ve established the numerous similarities, there are significant differences between the two governments over which each group had influence.

It is important to understand the nature of the British Empire in the early 20th century versus the United States in the early 21st century. The Milner Group had greatly influenced Britain during and in the leadup to its involvement in the First World War, through notable members like Lionel Curtis and Alfred Zimmern — the former arguing for the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth of Nations, and the latter being influential in the creation of the League of Nations. As a result, Britain’s “formal” governing empire was dissolved, though her “informal” financial empire survived. In contrast, the Global American Empire (GAE) has since the Second World War been largely “informal,” with financial influence over all other Western nations rather than direct imperial rule. But the Trump administration’s desire to annex Greenland, the Panama Canal, and even Canada would be a shift to a “formal” empire if it were actually carried out. Musk’s Kindergarten, after it’s done cutting out waste and DEI from within the federal government, could send its members to these new imperial provinces to work on integrating them. This would be similar in fashion to the Milner Group, who then sent their members to the Dominions to agitate for Imperial Federation. Musk may be able to accomplish what Milner and Rhodes never could. To quote from Rhodes’s first will (1877):

The extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands wherein the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour, and enterprise… the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of a British Empire, the consolidation of the whole Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire, and finally the foundation of so great a power as to hereafter render wars impossible and promote the best interests of humanity.⁷

After a first wave of annexations, perhaps this newly rejuvenated America could possibly absorb the rest of the Anglosphere countries ejecting their globalist tyrants. The desire expressed in Rhodes’s will would be accomplished, though he had intended for it to be Britain at the centre and not the periphery. Britain and Canada as the 52nd and 53rd states? More improbable things have happened.

Conclusion

Musk is in a good, but precarious, position to create his own little Kindergarten of loyal managerial technocrats, as seen by the men recently exposed by Wired.

He has the necessary financial, political, and intellectual capital to make it happen. The long-term question is whether such a new elite would help or hinder the MAGA project. Musk is ultimately tied to Team Trump and his agenda. If Vice President Vance or another politician in the PayPal Mafia doesn’t win a future presidential election, then the techbros’ influence will be greatly diminished. This happened several times to the Milner Group itself, most notably after the Liberal landslide of 1906, which evicted Balfour’s Tory government, and the Labour landslide of 1945, which kicked Churchill to the curb. He will need to combat skilfully and remove the previous bureaucrats in order to install his own within these positions. And these men may be ultimately more loyal to Musk than to Trump, especially if there is a falling-out between the two. Still, Trump is officially up for his last term, and the fresh blood Elon is injecting could have a long career ahead of them in government. A future Vance administration may have to choose between serving the interests of MAGA or serving the interests of the PayPal Mafia. Only time will tell what actually happens, but the next four years will certainly be interesting to watch.

1. Vittoria Elliott, “The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover,” Wired, February 2, 2025.

2. The White House, “Establishing And Implementing The President’s ‘Department Of Government Efficiency’,” January 20, 2025.

3. Ana Faguy and James FitzGerald, “What is the department of government efficiency? Donald Trump picks Elon Musk for new cost-cutting role,” BBC News, November 13, 2024.

4. Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden (Books in Focus, Inc., 1981), p. 85.

5. Peter Thiel, “The Education of a Libertarian,” Cato Unbound, Cato Institute, April 13, 2009.

6. Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden (Books in Focus, Inc., 1981), p. 68.

7. Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment: From Rhodes to Cliveden (Books in Focus, Inc., 1981), p. 33.