Who can stop Elon Musk? Even though it’s illegal for him to seize control of federal agency finances to slash the workforce, a Republican Congress is unlikely to assert its legally mandated prerogatives. Nor has any serious opposition emerged from the Democratic Party. And while the courts have paused some of this power grab, there’s no guarantee that our hyperconservative Supreme Court will seriously oppose it. Moreover, Musk’s wrecking crew can impose a huge number of cuts while legal proceedings wind their way through the courts.

But all is not lost: Musk is actually very vulnerable to popular backlash. As Jonathan Martin of Politico points out, Donald Trump is likely to throw Musk’s project to the wolves once it starts generating too much bad press. If workers can turn the tide of popular opinion squarely against Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), it’s likely to meet the same fate as the administration’s unpopular funding freeze.

Escaping this crisis will depend, above all, on the actions of federal workers.