Elon Musk’s failure in government

WHEN DONALD TRUMP announced last November that Elon Musk would be heading a government-efficiency initiative, many of his fellow magnates were delighted. The idea, wrote Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture-capital firm, was “one of the greatest things I’ve ever read”. Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund manager, wrote his own three-step guide to how the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE”, could influence government policy. Even Bernie Sanders, a left-wing senator, tweeted hedged support, saying that Mr Musk was “right”, pointing to waste and fraud in the defence budget.

America’s government needs to change. Mr Musk has built several remarkable businesses in areas that seemed impossible. That he could help seemed plausible. And yet just a few months in, most in Washington think DOGE is a failure, and Mr Musk is on the way out. Was this inevitable? And what does it say about the future of government reform?

Mr Musk announced his departure from government service on May 28th, via a post on X, his social-media platform. Steve Davis, a lieutenant of his who had reportedly run much of the operation, is also stepping down. Katie Miller, who had served as DOGE’s spokesperson, is leaving too. Two days later Mr Musk appeared at a press conference with Mr Trump sporting a black eye, which he said was given to him by his five-year-old son, also called X. The departure was not absolute, Mr Trump insisted: Mr Musk will still advise. But he presented Mr Musk with a golden key.

Despite the bonhomie, Mr Musk seems to have fallen out with his one-time “best buddy”. In an interview with CBS aired before his departure he criticised Mr Trump’s new tax bill for undermining his cost-cutting efforts. He did not want “to take responsibility for everything”, he said. Since leaving, he has tweeted that the bill is a “disgusting abomination”.

Mr Musk has also failed to fulfil his promises. Having pledged to save $2trn in federal spending, he eviscerated foreign aid and sent tens of thousands of workers packing. But foreign aid and federal salaries together made up only 6% of government spending. By DOGE’s own dubious accounting, $175bn of savings were made. According to Treasury figures, spending overall in fact continued to rise.

Mr Musk’s efficiency drive seemed grounded in conspiracy theories. Democrats, Mr Musk argued, had turned the government into a device for funnelling money to illegal immigrants. The federal workforce, he reckoned, was riddled with ghost employees who did not actually exist. None of it was true. According to a recent report in the New York Times, Mr Musk’s belief in this nonsense coincided with him consuming prodigal amounts of powerful drugs. (He denies the report.)

Fraud and improper payments may genuinely cost hundreds of billions a year, according to estimates from the Government Accountability Office. But to uncover these abuses and errors requires forensic accountants and people with a deep grasp of policy. Mr Musk quickly alienated those experts. Mass firings meanwhile got bogged down in lawsuits. In the end, most departments have been forced to make cuts via the traditional legal process, with protection given based on seniority and veteran status.

Mr Musk has, however, made changes. His biggest impact is abroad. According to modelled predictions by Brooke Nichols of Boston University, cuts to foreign aid could have already caused 300,000 deaths. Bill Gates, a fellow-billionaire and philanthropist, has accused him of “killing the world’s poorest children”. In Washington the group’s young engineers have acted like enforcers for Mr Trump’s theory of absolute executive power. Those who resisted—like the United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally established think-tank—were shut down by brute force. (The institute has since reopened, after a court ruling. On re-entering the building, cleaners found marijuana apparently thrown out by DOGE staffers.)

The irony is that a smaller, more focused form of DOGE’s intervention would have been helpful. “The underlying proposition that our government needs to be modernised...is a very right one”, says Max Stier of the Partnership for Public Service, a charity. Important work is tied up by stifling thickets of red tape. Mr Musk’s intuition that many rules can and perhaps should be broken was correct. Sadly, thanks to DOGE’s actions, should another administration ever try a more purposeful reform effort, it may be all the harder. ■