One hundred days after Elon Musk entered the White Home as Donald Trump’s senior adviser and the de facto chief of the so-called “division of presidency effectivity” (Doge), the Tesla CEO has left little of the federal authorities unscathed. Over the course of only a few months, he has gutted businesses and public providers that took a long time to construct whereas accumulating immense political energy.
Musk’s function within the Trump administration is with out trendy precedent. By no means earlier than has the world’s richest particular person been deputized by the US president to cull the very businesses that oversee his companies. Musk’s makes an attempt to radically dismantle authorities bureaus have gained him sprawling affect. His workforce has embedded its members in key roles throughout federal businesses, gained entry to private knowledge on hundreds of thousands of Individuals and fired tens of 1000’s of staff. SpaceX, the place he’s CEO, is now poised to take over potential authorities contracts value billions. He has left a path of chaos whereas seeding the federal government together with his allies, who will doubtless assist him revenue and protect his newfound energy.
The billionaire’s newfound sway has not come with out pushback and a value. Doge’s blitz by way of the federal government has sparked livid nationwide backlash, in addition to dozens of lawsuits difficult Musk’s mass firings and accusing his activity pressure of violating quite a few legal guidelines. Musk’s private reputation has sunk to report lows, and Tesla’s earnings have tanked.
A glance again on the first 100 days of the Trump administration exhibits the extent to which Musk’s efforts have modified the US authorities. It additionally exhibits that what Musk framed as a cost-cutting activity initiative is failing to satisfy its ostensible purpose of discovering $1tn in fraud or waste, however it’s succeeding in reshaping federal businesses alongside ideological grounds, paving the way in which for personal firms to fill the ensuing vacuum of public providers.
Musk has not too long ago stopped bodily working from the White Home and said he plans to pivot away from his authorities place quickly, however has entrenched himself as one of many world’s most divisive political figures and provides no signal he’s prepared to totally quit his affect. As a substitute, the primary 100 days of Doge exhibits that the scope of Musk’s ambition extends to remaking how the federal government offers with every part from humanitarian support to the rule of legislation.
Doge sweeps by way of businesses
On the identical day Trump was sworn into workplace, the president issued an government order that created Musk’s “division of presidency effectivity” by renaming the US Digital Service company, which beforehand dealt with governmental tech points. Trump’s order included solely a imprecise mandate to modernize authorities expertise and improve effectivity, however inside days it will develop into clear that Musk and his workforce had much more expansive goals.
Within the months main as much as the chief order, Musk had been hiring a workforce of staffers that included a mixture of younger engineers, tech world executives and longtime lieutenants from his personal firms. Operating the day-to-day operations was Steve Davis, who had labored with Musk at varied firms, together with SpaceX and the Boring Firm, for greater than 20 years. Davis was referred to as an exacting boss – Musk as soon as in contrast him to chemotherapy. Others had far much less expertise, together with 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who had labored for a number of months at Musk’s Neuralink firm. {The teenager} had been fired from a earlier internship for leaking info and glided by the username “massive balls” in on-line profiles.
Doge’s early days made headlines for concentrating on lots of presidency staff with layoffs and pushing others to resign, with greater than 2 million workers receiving an e mail on 28 January titled “Fork within the highway” that inspired staffers to take a buyout. The emails, which requested: “What did you accomplish this week?” would develop into a signature of Musk and his new bureau, despatched many times at any time when employees started to prey on a brand new herd of presidency workers.
Shortly after Trump’s government order created Doge, Musk’s workforce rapidly started popping up within the workplaces of quite a few businesses. One of many first was the Basic Providers Administration, which oversees digital expertise and authorities buildings. Doge staffers appeared on Zoom calls with no introduction and hidden final names, questioning federal workers about what they did for work and refusing to reply questions. In addition they started to indicate up in particular person, taking up convention rooms and transferring Ikea beds on to the sixth flooring of the GSA to sleep in a single day. Perplexed authorities staff at quite a few businesses described Doge’s actions as a hostile takeover, the place a goon squad would seem and demand speedy modifications to methods they knew little about.
“They’ve solely fired individuals and turned issues off,” stated a present federal worker, who agreed to talk anonymously for worry of retribution.
Concurrently, Doge staffers have been aggressively getting access to key knowledge methods that managed the circulation of funds to federal staff and funding for presidency contracts. In a single putting incident, Doge workforce members clashed with the very best rating profession official on the treasury division over entry to a cost system that controls $6tn in annual funds. The combat ended with the official, David Lebryk, being placed on administrative go away earlier than he finally resigned. Doge employees obtained the entry they needed.
Pushback towards Doge from different officers resulted in related punishments. As Doge staffers stormed into america Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) in early February, they discovered themselves in a heated standoff with safety officers who tried to bar them from accessing a safe room which held delicate and confidential knowledge. The confrontation ended with USAID’s high safety official being placed on administrative go away, whereas Doge gained entry to its methods. With nobody to cease them, Doge staffers then started the method of hollowing out the company that had as soon as been the world’s largest single provider of humanitarian support. Greater than 5,600 USAID staff all over the world can be fired within the ensuing weeks.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wooden chipper,” Musk boasted days afterward X, his social media platform.
Musk strikes to intestine the federal government
Doge’s concentrating on of USAID turned out to be a blueprint for a way Musk and firm would go after different elements of the federal government. In early February, Musk’s workforce had established a presence throughout federal businesses and positioned itself on the fulcrum of presidency employment methods. The following step was mass layoffs.
“We do have to delete whole businesses,” Musk instructed attendees at a World Governments Summit in Dubai on 13 February. “If we don’t take away the roots of the weed, then it’s simple for the weed to develop again.”
The identical day as Musk’s remarks, the Trump administration ordered businesses to fireside 1000’s of probationary staff – a designation that applies to workers who’ve been at their jobs for lower than a yr, together with those that might have been not too long ago promoted. Different staff quickly acquired an e mail from Doge that demanded they record 5 issues that they did final week or face termination, a chaotic request that additionally turned out to be an empty risk. Cupboard officers privately deemed it nonsensical.
Amid the widespread cuts, Musk started reveling in his new powers each on X and in public appearances. On the Conservative Political Motion Convention (CPAC) on 23 February he stood on stage in a black Maga hat, sun shades and gold chain, gleefully wielding a chainsaw that was gifted to him by Javier Milei, the rightwing populist Argentinian president.
“This chainsaw is for forms!” he stated. “I’m develop into meme.”
Whereas Musk celebrated his first cuts, Doge started going after whole workplaces and businesses it seen as politically progressive or against its targets. The GSA’s 18F workplace, which helped construct software program tasks such because the IRS’s free tax submitting service, was one of many first targets. On 3 February, Musk instructed a rightwing influencer on X that the workplace was “deleted” in response to an inaccurate submit accusing the group of being radical leftists. Workers on the 18F workplace requested their new Musk-allied management what “deleted” meant, former staff stated, however acquired no additional clarification. The workers continued working for weeks beneath a cloud of confusion and stress with their new leaders, till the nighttime on Saturday 1 March, once they acquired an e mail saying they have been going to be laid off en masse.
“We have been dwelling proof that the speaking factors of this administration have been false. Authorities providers may be environment friendly,” Lindsay Younger, the previous government director of 18F, stated in a submit on LinkedIn. “This made us a goal.”
Doge’s affect quickly prolonged past authorities tech workplaces into main businesses such because the Division of Well being and Human Providers, which introduced in March that it was slicing 10,000 jobs to align with Trump’s government order on Doge. In a show of the chaos that Doge had impressed, US well being secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr weeks later admitted that round 2,000 of these staff have been fired in error and would must be reinstated.
Musk fights the judicial system
As quickly as Trump issued the chief order to create Doge, watchdog and labor teams filed lawsuits difficult its legality. Extra lawsuits piled on as Doge accessed delicate knowledge methods, fired staff and refused to answer public information requests. Altogether, there have now been greater than two dozen circumstances concentrating on the company.
At first, Doge and Musk appeared to maneuver quicker than the judicial system may reply as they slashed and burned authorities businesses. Across the begin of March, nonetheless, lots of the courtroom circumstances started to provide rulings that curtailed Doge’s layoffs and quickly blocked its employees’s entry to knowledge. Judges dominated that the Trump administration wanted to reinstate probationary staff that they fired, restricted some Doge entry to databases at businesses such because the Social Safety Administration and ordered Musk’s workforce to show over inner information it had been searching for to maintain personal.
Musk’s response was a relentless stream of assaults towards the judicial system on X, which included calls for that lawmakers “impeach the judges” and claims that there was a “judicial coup” beneath means towards Trump. Musk repeatedly amplified far-right influencers saying that the US ought to emulate El Salvador’s strongman president, Nayib Bukele, whose celebration ousted supreme courtroom judges in 2021 in a slide towards authoritarianism.
after publication promotion
Whereas Musk campaigned towards federal judges that have been growing oversight and forcing extra transparency on Doge, he additionally started plowing cash right into a Wisconsin supreme courtroom race that may have tipped the state’s judicial physique conservative. The billionaire and the teams he funded put greater than $20m towards electing a conservative decide, which he claimed was essential to “the way forward for civilization”.
The try to affect the Wisconsin vote adopted his blueprint from the presidential race. His Tremendous Pac supplied $100 to voters prepared to signal a petition stating their opposition to “activist judges”, and he held a marketing campaign rally the place he gave out $1m greenback checks on stage. Musk’s effort didn’t persuade voters, together with his most popular candidate dropping by 10 proportion factors.
The result of the Wisconsin supreme courtroom race proved to be the primary in a collection of setbacks that examined the bounds of Musk’s political affect and the toxicity of his private model. Because the billionaire embraced his new function as a Republican mega-donor and positioned himself usually actually at heart stage, it grew to become clear that his routine didn’t at all times play nicely outdoors of the insulated bubbles of Maga rallies and Tesla product launches. Whereas individuals noticed an increasing number of of Musk, polls confirmed that the general public favored him much less and fewer.
Protests increase towards Musk and Tesla
As Musk’s affiliation with Trump and the worldwide far proper grew to become too distinguished to disregard over the previous yr, there was a rising social stigma towards associating together with his merchandise. Essentially the most tangible image of Musk’s empire, Tesla, has develop into the main focus of a world protest motion for the reason that creation of Doge. SpaceX, the second-largest supply of Musk’s wealth, has appeared insulated from the vicissitudes of shopper sentiment and elevated its function in US area operations.
Protests at Tesla dealerships, in addition to vandalism towards particular person automobiles, began small within the weeks after inauguration, with gatherings of some dozen individuals in cities together with New York Metropolis and San Francisco. Some Tesla homeowners offered their automobiles as a result of affiliation with Musk or positioned “I purchased this earlier than we knew Elon was loopy” bumper stickers on their autos. The demonstrations rapidly escalated to extra cities, although, organizing beneath the banner of “Tesla Takedown” protests that focused showrooms across the nation.
By mid-March, a completely fledged worldwide protest motion towards Tesla and Musk had shaped and led to mass protests. 1000’s of individuals gathered at showrooms from Sydney to San Francisco on 30 March in a day of motion, with organizers stating that “hurting Tesla is stopping Musk”. Vandalism towards Tesla dealerships, charging stations and automobiles additionally intensified all over the world, together with a number of molotov cocktail assaults and incidents of arson. Trump and Musk referred to as the assaults home terrorism, whereas Pam Bondi, the legal professional basic, vowed to crack down on anybody concentrating on Tesla.
The stress on Tesla represented an actual risk to the corporate, which was already coping with an total sluggish marketplace for electrical autos and elevated competitors from Chinese language automakers. As protests unfold, Musk leaned on his standing in Maga world to aim to revitalize the model. Trump appeared on the White Home driveway in entrance of a number of parked Teslas, telling reporters that he was going to purchase considered one of them and praising Musk as a “patriot”. Others in Trump’s orbit, together with Fox Information host Sean Hannity, additionally posted gross sales pitches for the automaker.
Regardless of reward from Trump and Musk’s assurances to staff and traders that they need to not promote Tesla inventory, analysts reported that the protests together with different financial points have been however taking a toll. A inventory selloff has resulted in Tesla’s share worth falling round 25% for the reason that begin of the yr, wiping billions of {dollars} from Musk’s web value. A primary-quarter earnings name on 22 April revealed Tesla’s efficiency was even worse than expectations, with a 71% drop in earnings and 9% drop in income yr over yr.
Musk introduced on the decision that he would spend considerably much less time engaged on Doge beginning someday in Might.
Musk eyes an exit, however Doge stays
Musk’s declaration that he would pare again his time with Doge to 1 or two days every week gave a extra definitive sense of his exit after weeks of hypothesis about when and the way he would go away the White Home. Though Trump has remained adamant that Musk is doing a very good job and stays welcome within the administration, a rising refrain of high officers have both brazenly feuded with him or privately griped about his presence all through his first 100 days.
Musk has had intense clashes with secretary of state Marco Rubio, transportation secretary Sean Duffy and a number of other different high Trump staffers. He reportedly obtained right into a near-physical shouting match with treasury secretary Scott Bessent in latest weeks, and has publicly referred to as chief commerce adviser Peter Navarro, the architect of Trump’s tariff insurance policies, “dumber than a sack of bricks”.
The ability struggles between Musk and administration officers go away it unclear how a lot say Doge could have with out Musk always positioned on the proper hand of the president, however his allies are nonetheless unfold all through the federal government and actively engaged on finishing up his mission. Doge has continued to focus on businesses all through April, gutting smaller teams corresponding to an company that coordinates authorities coverage on homelessness, and eyeing others together with the Peace Corps for mass layoffs.
A few of Doge’s cuts have instantly focused businesses that oversee Musk’s firms, together with on the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration that regulates and investigates the dangers of self-driving automobiles. Shifts in priorities and management at businesses corresponding to Nasa and the Pentagon additionally put SpaceX ready to probably make billions off of latest contracts, whereas former authorities workers say it’s doubtless Doge already has entry to confidential enterprise knowledge on SpaceX’s rivals.
Whereas a part of the Doge workforce remains to be discovering staff to fireside, different members have begun accessing much more knowledge methods and are beginning to put them to work. One goal has been immigration, the place Doge employees have accessed private info that features remedy information for unaccompanied migrant youngsters, housing info and biometric knowledge. The purpose, a number of retailers have reported, is to create a grasp database that could possibly be used to implement the Trump administration’s deportations and different anti-immigration maneuvers.
Mission achieved?
As Doge’s function has develop into extra amorphous over its first three months, its initially marketed purpose of slicing $1-2tn from the price range has moved farther from view. Musk has as a substitute shifted the purpose posts, saying that he expects to search out $150bn in financial savings this yr – a fraction of his authentic purpose and a small dent within the total federal price range. That quantity can also be an phantasm, as Doge’s tally of its financial savings has been full of fixed errors and miscalculations. A lot of Doge’s financial savings may be erased by the prices of defending itself in courtroom and losses related to its mass layoffs.
The true results of Doge’s first 100 days are nonetheless taking part in out. Dismantling USAID is projected to trigger round 176,000 extra deaths, greater than half of them youngsters, in line with a Boston College monitoring mission. Cuts to businesses such because the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Affiliation and Federal Emergency Administration Company may imperil pure catastrophe forecasting and reduction. Companies corresponding to Veterans Affairs that present public providers might deteriorate, whereas cuts to analysis and teaching programs could also be felt for many years to come back.
“The superb factor is that they haven’t truly completed something constructive in any respect. Actually all they’ve completed is destroy issues,” a present federal worker stated of Doge. “Individuals are going to overlook the federal authorities that that they had.”
