Elon Musk — world’s richest man, main authorities contractor, prime donor and adviser to the president of america and man who pays to cheat at video video games — ended his tenure as a particular authorities worker on Friday with a cheerful goodbye and thank-you from President Donald Trump.
Requested by a reporter Friday if his time in authorities was value it and what he would have accomplished in another way, Musk, sporting a bruise over his proper eye, complained his “Department of Government Efficiency” had change into a “bogeyman” and appeared to concede defeat to the federal forms.
“There are many things that occur in the government because it’s, it’s the banal evil of bureaucracy. It’s sort of the frankly, largely, largely uncaring nature of bureaucracy,” he mentioned.
“I think it was an important thing,” Musk mentioned. “I think it was a necessary thing and I think it will have a good effect in future.”
Considered one of Musk’s key early initiatives was a requirement for all federal authorities staff to ship emails to their bosses outlining 5 issues they completed the week prior. Musk initially threatened to fireplace any worker who didn’t ship such an e mail, however later backed down. Employees on the Social Safety Administration are nonetheless sending the emails as of this week, whereas the Division of Protection requested staff for his or her closing submissions this week as properly.
In honor of Musk’s departure, HuffPost has compiled an inventory of 5 issues Musk may level to as accomplishments in a sign-off e mail to Trump.
1. Used Visible Support To Illustrate Targets (Performed With Chainsaw)
In a February look on the Conservative Political Motion Convention, the president of Argentina, who’s a darling of right-wingers, handed Elon Musk an influence instrument and, in so doing, created the indelible picture of the Musk period of Trump’s second time period.
“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk mentioned as he waved the chainsaw round, posing for the images that might be used for a whole bunch of stories tales about his efforts to chop federal companies. The chainsaw without delay symbolized Musk’s energy and his recklessness.
Musk and his staff consistently pushed authorized and constitutional boundaries by firing federal staff, infiltrating delicate databases and restructuring total departments. This week, a choose allowed a lawsuit by Democratic states difficult the elemental construction of the DOGE enterprise as unconstitutional to proceed.
On Friday, a reporter requested Musk concerning the bruise on his face. He mentioned his 5-year-old son did it.
“I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did,” Musk mentioned.
Andrew Harnik by way of Getty Photographs
2. Pioneered New Strategies Of Growing Dying Tolls In Rising Markets (Destroyed The U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement)
Musk’s signature achievement as head of DOGE was the dismantling of the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement, the a part of authorities most opposite to Trump’s notions of “America First.” Musk bragged he put the company “into the wood chipper.” (This was earlier than he’d been given the chainsaw.)
The decapitation of the company resulted within the cutoff of lifesaving support to individuals, together with kids, in poorer international locations world wide. A Boston College professor estimates greater than 300,000 individuals, two-thirds of them kids, have already died within the 4 months for the reason that cuts had been applied.
3. Diverted Destructive Consideration From Principals (Destroyed Personal Status)
Musk took huge swings towards federal companies and picked some questionable targets, together with the Social Safety Administration, purveyor of month-to-month advantages to greater than 70 million People. He falsely claimed Social Safety was filled with fraud and championed cuts to providers Democrats used to painting Musk as the largest villain of Trump’s authorities.
Musk’s approval score tanked, sinking decrease than the president’s, and so did the inventory efficiency of his electrical automotive firm, Tesla. He mused final week that he may need spent an excessive amount of of his time on politics. He claimed Friday that public opposition to his work stemmed from misunderstandings.
“What we found was happening was that if there were any cuts anywhere, people would assume that was done by DOGE,” Musk mentioned Friday. “And so we became, essentially, the DOGE bogeyman, where any cut, anywhere, would be ascribed to DOGE.”
Trump vouched for his prime marketing campaign funder and effectivity czar.
“He’s done a lot of things,” Trump mentioned. “Frankly, I don’t think he gets credit for what he’s done. He’s a very good person. He happens to be a really good person who loves the country.”
4. Achieved Vital Eventual Price Discount (Failed To Attain Absurd Financial savings Aim)
Musk claimed throughout the marketing campaign that he may simply save the federal authorities $2 trillion out of its practically $7 trillion annual finances just by rooting out fraud and waste. After Trump gained, Musk scaled his ambition all the way down to $1 trillion in financial savings. On Friday, Musk conceded that DOGE had give you solely $160 billion in financial savings, although the estimates posted on the DOGE web site have regularly confirmed unreliable, and the quantity might be much less.
“I’m confident that, over time, we’ll see a trillion dollars of savings,” Musk mentioned.
5. Gathered Vital Information To Assist Different Staff Attain Nation Separation Objectives (Satisfied The IRS To Hand Over Information To Assist ICE Discover Extra Undocumented Immigrants)
A lot of what generated public opposition to DOGE was the company’s seemingly relentless quest for extra knowledge. For privateness causes, authorities knowledge is usually siloed off, with entry restricted solely to key determination makers at totally different companies. DOGE pushed apart company heads and cybersecurity professionals to get beforehand protected knowledge from the Inner Income Service, the Division of Health and Human Providers and the Social Safety Administration.
Why? In response to revealed experiences, it was to construct a grasp database to hurry up immigration enforcement and make it simpler for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to seek out native undocumented immigrants and deport them. The database could be key to attaining Trump and prime White Home adviser Stephen Miller’s targets of “mass deportation” at a time when ICE is reportedly not assembly its deportation targets.
