Elon Musk is stepping down from the American Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Saving money in government is not a bad idea in itself. But Musk’s approach has become a “gigantic failed project” that was mainly about theater, experts tell NU.nl.
After 130 days, Musk will officially end his work for DOGE on Friday. “Now that my time as a special government employee is coming to an end, I want to thank President Donald Trump for the opportunity to reduce waste in government,” Musk wrote earlier this week on X.
Shortly after Donald Trump became President of the United States for the second time, the Tesla boss thundered into various government departments. DOGE employees plugged in their computers and gained access to important systems full of sensitive data. “He went at it with a sledgehammer,” says America expert Diederik Brink about Musk’s activities.
Kirsten Verdel, who studied Trump’s first hundred days in the White House for a book, agrees. Both experts say that saving on government spending was not necessarily a bad idea, and that it is also not a new idea.
“Modernizing and making the federal government more efficient is not an unnecessary luxury. Friend and foe agree on that,” says Brink. Verdel: “It is not a crazy idea at all to see what costs the government incurs and what could possibly be reduced.”
But saving 2 trillion dollars in such a short time, which was initially Musk’s goal, is impossible according to both experts. And that has become clear. DOGE itself states that it has saved approximately 175 billion, but even that fraction of the original goal is faltering. For example, American media previously wrote that the amounts cannot be verified. “There is no evidence for it,” says Verdel. Brink agrees.
Dozens thousands of civil servants fired
Anyone who thinks back to the beginning of this year may still remember how the ax was wielded in one government department after another. The most unrest perhaps arose when Musk announced that he would dismantle aid organization USAID. “USAID is a criminal organization. It is time for it to die,” Musk wrote about it on X.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Marco Rubio spoke of a “historic reform”, in which thousands of foreign aid programs were stopped. Aid organizations had major concerns.
The enormous rounds of layoffs at many different government agencies also stood out, says Verdel. “About 250,000 people have now lost their jobs. Some were told that they had been fired and had to leave their office fifteen minutes later.” Musk and Trump had also targeted regulations and supervisors.
DOGE is a ‘gigantic failed project’
According to both experts, the cost-cutting project of the pair has not succeeded. Brink speaks of a “gigantic failed project”. Verdel agrees. According to her, this is because people were randomly sent away in many places and important organizations were simply eliminated. It seems that little thought was given to the consequences.
“Normally you calmly see what can possibly be removed where. That did not happen now. As a result, we saw, for example, that dismissed personnel repeatedly had to be rehired, because acute problems arose that were not foreseen.”
Whether Musk’s work has really yielded 175 billion to the American treasury therefore remains unclear due to a lack of transparency. Moreover, the costs of the damage caused by Musk’s working methods are, according to some, greater in the long term than what they have now quickly yielded, say both Verdel and Brink.
But according to the experts, that was not the point at all. Brink: “The goal of Trump and Musk was not to approach it efficiently, but to come across effectively. It is theater. The image of Trump taking action has been set. We have never seen that overwhelming entrance before.”
Musk brought in many new assignments
Musk himself seems to have benefited from his temporary job for the government. With his companies, he has brought in billions in government contracts. In addition, he has had access to much sensitive American data, which can be useful for his AI plans. It should be said, however, that the stock values of his companies have plummeted in recent months, which has cost Musk a lot of money.
This is because not everyone was charmed by his way of doing things. “About half of Americans did not vote for Trump and many of those people have come to hate him because of Musk’s actions,” says Verdel. Tesla sales declined because people left the electric cars alone.
According to both experts, Musk’s departure can largely be explained by the resistance to Musk that has arisen in American society. “Even Trump supporters have started to hate him for his reckless way of working. That has become a political risk for Trump,” says Brink. Verdel also thinks that Trump therefore showed Musk the door. Although Trump and Musk will not completely let go of each other for the time being, both experts expect.