Elon Musk. The owner of a chainsaw that fell short of expectations

Elon Musk has become an inevitable figure of American politics since last year. One of the richest entrepreneurs in the world, known for the various companies he founded – from Tesla to Spacex – decided to support Donald Trump’s candidacy, even though he admitted that in the past he had voted in the Democratic Party. «Support fully to President Trump and I make votes to recover quickly»Musk wrote in his official X -account of the former Twitter, of which he is also a owner, following the murder attempt of which Trump was a victim in a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

His approach to the then former president was one of the hot topics of the election campaign, and the tycoon even donated about $ 75 million to the Republicans campaign. Musk became politically active, which caused a wave of criticism, supporting several national-populist European movements, of which AFD stands out in Germany, and demonstrated special sympathy by Argentine President Javier Milei.

The genesis

This admiration for Milei, who is carrying out an economic and financial adjustment in Argentina, annihilating public expense, budgetary deficit and inflation, has perhaps the inspiration of Musk and Trump to introduce a department dedicated to the same causes in the United States – whose expense and public debt have grown at a pace that could check the US financial health. This is how Doge – Department of Government Efficiency is born (Department of Government Efficiency in Portuguese) – an acronym that refers to the cryptocurrency created by Musk, who used a meme of a dog named Doge as inspiration.

A few days after the electoral victory, then-president Trump announced the creation of the department that would be led by Musk and would also be attended by Vivek Ramaswamy, a former representative candidate who eventually supported Trump, becoming one of the main figures of his hard core. “Together, these two wonderful Americans will make way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulations, cut into superfluous expenses and restructure federal agencies – essential for the ‘save to America’ movement.wrote, at the time, Trump, adding that it was «Looking forward to Elon and Vivek» make «Changes in federal bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and at the same time»become «The better life for all Americans».

It is then, on January 20, the day of inauguration, that Trump creates, through an executive order, the doge: « This executive order creates the department of government efficiency to implement the president’s Doge Agenda, modernizing federal technology and software to maximize government efficiency and productivity. »reads in the document published on the official website of the US government. On March 28, also in a document published by the government entitled «Doge’s mission to make the public administration work again»there are several citations of those responsible from the agency, of which naturally stand out two from Elon Musk. The first reveals the entrepreneur’s reaction to the situation with which he came across in the early days of action: «The amount of waste and government fraud is astonishing – is hallucinating. We usually find waste of $ 1 million or more – casually ». The second summarizes the mission of the doge: «At the end of the day, America will be much better. America will be solvent. The essential programs that people depend will work and the future will be fantastic ».

After less than six months, Elon Musk announced that he is leaving the department. But, after less than six months, the objectives were met? Well, neither the data nor the statements of Musk seem encouraging.

An inefficient department

First, let’s look at the evolution of US expense and public debt in the last decade. According to data from Trading Economicsthe first went from $ 3.31 billion in the second quarter of 2015 to 4 billion in the last quarter of 2024. The second recorded more than double – from 19 billion in December 2015 to 36, 2 billion in December 2024. More than relevant, these numbers were revealing, and Elon Musk seemed determined from the first moment, ensuring that the agency that would pass to the agency to pass tutelary would be responsible for cuts in the expense in the value of «At least 2 billion dollars. This initial objective was manifestly exaggerated, with Musk to predict, in April 2025 at a meeting of the Executive, that Doge would have the ability to reach the mark of «150 billion dollars in cuts in expenses». That is, only 7.5% of what was initially estimated.

On the homepage of the OGE official website we found two large numbers at the top: the estimated savings and the total saved by each taxpayer. The first, which are a « Combination of sales of assets, cancellations and renegotiations of contracts/locations, elimination of improper fraud and payments, subsidies cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings and personnel reductions»reach the $ 175 billion. The second indicator, «Calculated based on an estimate of 161 million individual federal taxpayers»points to the $ 1087.

Still, an independent study of Partnership either Public Service (PSP), which, according to the CBS News, « It seeks to account for the costs associated with the placement of tens of thousands of federal employees on paid license, the rehirement of workers dismissed by mistake and the loss of productivity. »estimated that the «Doge shares will cost $ 135 billion this fiscal year». «The estimate of the PSP»continues to CBS, «It is based on $ 270 billion in annual compensation costs for the federal workforce, calculating the impact of DOGE’s actions, from paid licenses to productivity increases. The cost of $ 135 billion for taxpayers does not include defense expenses for multiple lawsuits that dispute Doge’s actions, nor the impact of estimated loss of tax collection due to IRS staff cuts ». This article was published in April and, at the time, the government replied that this study was part of a range of « Continuous attempts to sow doubt about the huge achievements of this effort never before seen to make public administration more efficient say more about the illegitimacy of those who propagate these falsehoods than about the good work of the doge. ».

Fareed Zakaria, in November last year, wrote that the doge «It is an essential and important idea»this is because “The federal government has become clearly too expansive and its mandate too heavy. There are over 180,000 pages of federal regulations. It is certainly worth examining them closely and reform many of them ». Zakaria identified the main areas where doge should work: «Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and other mandatory programs (which) represent about 60 percent of the federal budget». «Following is the Department of Defense»continues the journalist and analyst, “With over $ 800 billion, which has been generally considered untouchable for political reasons – although it is probably the department that most desperately needs to be optimized. (…) The equally untouchable debt interest rates are followed, which are almost as large as the Pentagon’s budget. What is left is about 15% of the federal budget, which includes certain benefits to veterans, agricultural subsidies, roads on roads and self -established, etc. ». And this is where Zakaria emphasizes the difficulty that doge would face: «To get the 2 billion dolion expenses cuts (…) would have to eliminate all defense expenses. And then there would still be work to do ».

In April this year, with four months of work from doge, Zakaria wrote another opinion column, published by Washington Postwhere it finds that «The war against government efficiency is anything but efficient»since “Doge began his work not with the most logical targets if we were really looking for waste, fraud and abuse – places such as Medicare and the Defense Department, with its gigantic budgets. No, his first big target was a small agency that most Americans had probably never heard of ».

Bad expense, good expense

Doge’s inefficiency, with all its nuances, can be summarized to a simple data. We compare the public expense in the first 70 days of Joe Biden’s administration with public expense in the first 70 days of this Trump second administration. While in the first about two months of the Democratic presidency the expense was in the $ 2.2 billion, in the Republican reached $ 2.4 billion, which translates into a $ 200 billion increase, even with the support of Doge. This number shows the ineffectiveness of the department, of course, but it also reveals another fact: that Trump is itself spinning. The difference is that channels the expense to other sectors. And this will be possibly one of the explanatory factors for the removal, and demonstrations of musk dissatisfaction.

The recent «Great and Beautiful»as Trump called him, a legislative package presented the vote in Congress that provides for an increase in public expense of the 5 billion of dollars, is an example. Last Thursday at X, Musk announced that he will definitely move away and ensured that « Doge’s mission will only be strengthened over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government »after saying, in an interview with CBNwhich was «Disappointed to see the huge expenses law» what «Increases the budget deficit» and «Harms the work that the Doge team is doing». The businessman also stressed the fact that the doge is being used as «Scapegoat» for failure to reduce expense and public debt, telling the Washington Postthat «The situation of federal bureaucracy is much worse than I imagined».

Thus, the rupture, which had already begun at the time of the “day of liberation” in which Trump announced an extensive tariff package, between Musk and the American administration is consummated, even if it is, apparently, friendly. And in the end, Doge turned out to be far short of the goals to which he initially proposed.