Elon Musk, the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency, expressed resentment over DOGE’s decision to play the “whipping boy,” suggesting that it badly assumed responsibility for all provocative changes made during the Trump presidency.
Musk’s operate at DOGE, the bureaucracy-slashing task force he spearheaded that looked into government agencies for misuse and forgery on behalf of President Donald Trump, has sparked verbal abuse from Democrats for decades. Musk announced earlier this month that he would move down from DOGE and instead concentrate on running his multibillion-dollar businesses, Tesla, X, and SpaceX, which have suffered while he was in Washington.
He claimed that the federal government position was “much worse than I realized.” ” I didn’t realize there were issues, but it’s a really tough struggle trying to make things better in D.C.,” he said.
During his day at DOGE, Musk faced a lot of harsh criticism. He was subjected to a torrent of claims as he attempted to deter him from conducting internal investigations, accusing the work pressure of conducting improper searches of agencies like the Treasury Department for waste and for personal gain. According to reviewers, his job at the Treasury put sensitive information like Social Security numbers at hazard. He was also criticized for making recommendations to organization heads about reducing the number of government employees, which they claimed cut crucial jobs and portrayed as indifferent to federal workers.
During his discussion, Musk expressed disappointment with the criticism of DOGE.
” Expand is really becoming the whipping son for everything,” he said. But, like, everything bad did occur everywhere, and we would be held accountable for it, yet if we had nothing to do with it.
Democratic ire led to protests around the country that targeted lawmakers supportive of DOGE. Musk’s companies also took a hit, as anti-DOGE activists vandalized Tesla dealerships and products. As of late March, at least 80 violent attacks had been carried out, including incidents of arson and gunshots fired at dealerships, according to NBC News. The incidents are being investigated by the Justice Department and the FBI as possible acts of domestic terrorism.
Tesla’s reputation suffered a negative impact as a result.
By late April, Tesla’s stock had fallen 37 % from the beginning of the year. In its first-quarter earnings report released last month, the business revealed a decline in both its net income and net profit margin of 68 %.
The Musk DOGE distractions and brand troubles have obviously taken on a life of their own, according to Daniel Ives, a senior financial security researcher for Wedbush, in March.
This year, Musk expressed shock over the negative press his businesses received.
Teslas were being burned, he claimed. Why would you do that, exactly? That’s really not cool.
Musk earlier acknowledged that he had had “great trouble” running his businesses while leading DOGE.
” But there’s no turning back,” he said this flower. I’m really trying to make the government more effective and stop waste and fraud, and so far, well, we’re making good progress, really. Our daily saving thus far surpass$ 4 billion.
By pointing to information they claim present evidence of sweeping inconsistencies, dysfunctionalities, and problem within the federal government, Musk and his friends have defended DOGE. They claim that there must be changes to stop spare and prevent the nation from falling off a fiscal cliff.
In a March interview on Fox News ‘ Hannity, Musk said,” The government waste and fraud is so high that it is creating a$ 2 trillion annual deficit. That’s 2, 000 billion dollars of waste and fraud.” ” The cost of our bill has gotten so high that the total military expenditure was only growing out of control, and the interest payments on the loan have exceeded the whole military resources.”
Doing so, according to DOGE, major governmental organizations, like the Treasury Department, lacked basic features like settlement coding that explained where funds were going, which causes$ 500 billion in scams each year. According to Musk in a March statement, updating the payment tracking technology will save an estimated$ 100 billion annually.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the findings at his firm as “talking to each other” and that the Department of Health and Human Services had 40 communication agencies, 40 procurement agencies, and 40 IT agencies. There were 27 chief information officers and 700 diverse” doesn’t speak to each other” at the National Institutes of Health.
Musk also asserted that DOGE’s analysis of Social Security statistics revealed that 20 million people who are “definitely dying are marked as dead” in the Social Security databases as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in Small Business Administration loans that have been given to children under the age of 12
Numerous federal authorities have embraced the advice of DOGE.
After the program went lived in late April, the Treasury Department, according to Expand, identified and rejected$ 334 million in poor transaction requests. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Pentagon had cut$ 58 million in “wasteful investing” as a result of” DOGE’s results” after DOGE audited the Defense Department, which had failed six consecutive reviews.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer confirmed in April that DOGE had found nearly$ 400 million in unreported claims from people over 115, under 6 and with birthdates “over 15 years in the future” ( ). Schedule officials announced on Wednesday that the agency had “riddled with squander” and had cut another$ 400 million from the unemployment benefits program.
Musk is putting more time into building his businesses, including SpaceX, which attempted rocket launch this year, by reducing the amount of time he spends leading DOGE’s measures.
He is also monitoring Washington’s elections, though.  ,
Musk expressed worry over a “big, stunning” budget bill supported by Trump on Sunday, claiming that it allowed for excessive government spending that increased the nation’s gap.
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” I was disappointed to see the massive spending costs, which increases the gap, no simply decreases it, and undermines the function that the DOGE group is doing,” he said, “frankly, I was disappointed to see the massive spending act.”
” I think a bill can be large or it can be beautiful, but I don’t understand if it can be both, in my opinion,” Musk continued.
