Elon Musk counts the cost of his four-month blitz through US government

Term at DOGE did serious damage to his brands, only achieved a fraction of hoped-for savings.

See full article...

 

[F12]

I wonder how it feels to come into the government to make cuts for efficiency sake, have that tank your reputation and your car company, only to have the same government who hired you for efficiency pass a bill that costs trillions more.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

We're not at war with Russia, so treason doesn't actually fit in.

Espionage, sedition, or terrorism statutes then. Either way something that's going to sting.

 

[J.King]

In a year, the media will have moved on to the next Trump controversies and breathless reporting about the midterms, people will forget about Doge, and Tesla will recover.

In a year? I think the next Trump controversy will come much sooner than that...

 

[gefitz]

"Loss." "Cost." As if half of hundreds of billions of net worth isn't still hundreds of billions.

Cry me a river.

 

[SixDegrees]

In a year, the media will have moved on to the next Trump controversies and breathless reporting about the midterms, people will forget about Doge, and Tesla will recover.

For some definition of "recover," maybe. Tesla is below its barrel bottom at the moment, and a rebound is almost inevitable. Not to mention that as year-over-year figures eventually start to collide with one another, even a continuing decline will start to look like a success based on that metric.

 

[DarthSlack]

Musk did want to achieve savings. He's the type of person who would think, "Running the US government efficiently isn't rocket science, and I'm smarter than a rocket scientist," and severely underestimate the complexity and necessity of bureaucratic rules.

If destruction was the main goal, he wouldn't have been surprised that the destruction made him hugely unpopular.

Nah, the much-touted $2 trillion was based on such stupid math that even if Musk was jacked to the tits on whatever pills he carries around, he could understand it wasn't achievable.

But what was achievable was gutting each and every agency that has ever said no to him, or has sued him, or has supervisory authority over any of his businesses. Creating a wide-ranging train wreck just gave cover to how he was eliminating anyone who might stand in his way. You know, flooding the zone with bullshit.

 

[ktmglen]

Yes. The human cost of Musk's foray into government has been very high:

Simply halting PEPFAR, which provided about 20 million people with HIV antiretroviral drugs at a microscopic cost, has already killed an estimated 54,500 adults and 5,800 children. Many, many more will follow. Roughly 1,500 babies have been born HIV-positive every day since January 21, because Musk cut off their mothers’ medication.

From https://prospect.org/power/2025-05-30-go-elon-never-darken-our-doors-again/

Musk is an utterly-disgusting, contemptible slime ball. He will always be a Nazi. Don't let him redeem his image.

 

[Rick C.]

There was ZERO fucking savings. However, there will be plenty of fallout that everyone in this country will be subjected to. Christ, we don’t mess with that which is not broken.

 

[almsorne]

Most of us know it was never about savings, that was just a lie to eliminate government rules they don't like. But even the claimed savings are a joke, probably 1-2% of the claimed savings are actual dollar cuts, such as contracts that were cancelled part way through and they claim 40 million dollar savings, but in reality the way the contract is written the government now has to pay costs to the contractor for an orderly shut down of operations of whatever was being purchased, and that can end up costing more than the amount left on the contract (nevermind that the government doesn't even get the product or service that they have already paid for).

Such an embarrassing way to run anything.

 

[SixDegrees]

For the brief few seconds before the trapdoor opens.

If we want to be true to our historic past - like the Supreme Court very selectively does - we should do away with the quick, long-drop hangings and return to proper hanging where the victim could spend a good 20 minutes or so slowly choking to death. Just hitch 'em up a few inches, and leave their feet untied for the crowd's enjoyment.

 

[GameBoyColor]

He bought himself maybe four years of no oversight and government money, but you cannot do what he did and not expect the chickens to come home to roost.

serious question: are you suggesting actual accountability or some type of karmic justice?

If the former, who will hold him accountable in any meaningful way?

 

[DarthSlack]

In a year, the media will have moved on to the next Trump controversies and breathless reporting about the midterms, people will forget about Doge, and Tesla will recover.

Tesla has entered into a slow, but possibly terminal, decline. It's cars are getting old and there's nothing in the pipeline. Cybertruck is a flop. Tesla Semi is a curiosity at best. Serious competition has arrived with equal, and better, models, features, and pricing. FSD isn't. Robotaxi stands a very solid chance of failure, possibly killing people in the process. Optimus is vaporware. AI has already been parceled out to a different company.

On top of all that, Musk is absolutely loathed and profoundly unable to keep his mouth shut. It's only a matter of time before his shitposting on Twitter becomes news again.

 

[onechance]

He bought himself maybe four years of no oversight and government money, but you cannot do what he did and not expect the chickens to come home to roost.

You can if you are a narcissist.

 

[Deleted member 1085004]

"which has failed to find even a fraction of the $2 trillion in savings he originally pledged"

Of course, because there was never enough "waste" to begin with that TACO Toad campaigned on. People lost jobs who provided meaningful services. Meanwhile, the amount of money lost trying to crack down on immigrants trying to survive on jobs no one else wants, cutting the IRS so the rich get away with more fraud, this golden dome fantasy, and all the tax cuts for the rich and corporations is going to dwarf any "savings."

 

[SixDegrees]

I wonder how it feels to come into the government to make cuts for efficiency sake, have that tank your reputation and your car company, only to have the same government who hired you for efficiency pass a bill that costs trillions more.

Musk doesn't care. He wanted to dismantle those parts of government he saw as impediments to his businesses, full stop. He's clearly not happy with Trump now, and he's hanging his complaints on budgetary excess, but it's really all about his quiet ouster thanks to a cabinet he alienated and who now collectively hate him.

 

[Meridian Array]

“If you were truly evil, [you] would just be more quiet,” said Lavingia, who joined the initiative in order to streamline processes within government. “You would do the evil stuff quietly.”

But he's truly evil and truly stupid, and so he does the evil stuff loudly.

 

[starglider]

Name a single person who has benefited by working for Trump. It always ends in catastrophe for them, whether they’re high-character like Jim Mattis or low-character like Elon.

Why do people still do it? It’s not a hard patten to grasp. “Gee, I wonder if multiplying this number by zero will be any different.”

 

[litedesign]

“Trump, I think, was very savvy and allowed Doge to kind of take all those headlines for a traditional political scapegoat,” said Sahil Lavingia, head of a commerce start-up who worked for Doge until earlier this month.

Except for the fact that everyone was making fun of Trump and calling Elon Musk "President" for the last 4 months.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

Name a single person who has benefited by working for Trump. It always ends in catastrophe for them, whether they’re high-character like Jim Mattis or low-character like Elon.

Why do people still do it? It’s not a hard patten to grasp. “Gee, I wonder if multiplying this number by zero will be any different.”

You'll notice one common trend. "I'm smarter than everyone else." What could possibly happen to someone that smart?

 

[SixDegrees]

Except for the fact that everyone was making fun of Trump and calling Elon Musk "President" for the last 4 months.

That, more than anything, was likely the final straw for Trump, far more important than his entire cabinet's hatred of Musk.

 

[DK2]

No, and people downvoting you are pathetic. Enough of this "wishing violence on anyone for anyone reason is some mortal horrible sin!"

We wouldn't have to wish death on him if he and his billionaire friends didn't intentionally damage and stack the courts making it impossible to hold them accountable through any normal means.

The only way Elon or any other of the mega rich will be brought to justice is by vigilante.

It was THEIR CHOICES that led to this. Brian Thompson spent many years of his life actively supporting a party that wants to overthrow democracy. He spent his life intentionally hurting others for his own profit. He killed by the hundreds of thousands. He was a serial killer. Him getting two bullets in the spine was justice because ALL OTHER AVENUES WERE CLOSED OFF.

History will NOT see this with the moral "ambiguity" that our nullified, weak sensibilities see it as now.

No one has a problem with the idea of going back in time and killing Hitler. Only "what if there were unintended consequences?" there's absolutely no care for his life. Many people are even fine with the idea of smashing the head of baby Hitler.

Do we really think history will see Musk any differently? He is a serial killer. Do not pretend his life has value or is worth defending.

Dude: you're advocating political murder. You're not serious about it, or at least not serious enough to actually do anything other than bloviate on the internet. And no one else here is serious about it.

Nevertheless, Ars has to shut this down. It's a violation of the terms and it invites the DOJ to open a politically-motivated investigation into terroristic threats, probably the next time the New Yorker gets cross-wise with Trump.

And you're not posting this in an obscure place the bad guys won't notice. I guarantee Musk's PR people are monitoring these threads and reporting threats to his security people. How seriously they take any of it is a different matter, but giving them an excuse to turn this into a political firestorm is stupid.

Anyone serious about killing Musk needs to STFU, since announcing it in public is beyond stupid. And anyone not serious about killing Musk needs to STFU, since cos-playing a hardened terrorist is a very, very bad idea these days.

Besides, advocating murder is morally wrong. Hitler notwithstanding. You need to think seriously about a world view that's led you here.

 

[CrystalCowboy]

Tesla has entered into a slow, but possibly terminal, decline. It's cars are getting old and there's nothing in the pipeline. Cybertruck is a flop. Tesla Semi is a curiosity at best. Serious competition has arrived with equal, and better, models, features, and pricing. FSD isn't. Robotaxi stands a very solid chance of failure, possibly killing people in the process. Optimus is vaporware. AI has already been parceled out to a different company.

On top of all that, Musk is absolutely loathed and profoundly unable to keep his mouth shut. It's only a matter of time before his shitposting on Twitter becomes news again.

I am not sure Tesla will recover. Here is a conversation that will never happen:

Person1: I need a new car. I was thinking of buying a Tesla, but I heard that Elon Musk is a literal Nazi who buys elections and starves babies.

Person 2: That was last year. Now he just sells cars.

 

[Alfonse]

I wonder how it feels to come into the government to make cuts for efficiency sake, have that tank your reputation and your car company, only to have the same government who hired you for efficiency pass a bill that costs trillions more.

He didn't enter government to "make cuts for efficiency sake". That's a smokescreen.

 

[SixDegrees]

I cut off tesla drivers 5 times this week, what are you doing to help make life unbearable for anyone who buys tesla?

Pointless and childish. That sort of juvenile behavior accomplishes nothing and actually endangers others.

Go join the crowd at regularly occurring Tesla showrooms protesting Musk. You'll accomplish a lot more.

 

[real mikeb_60]

His spending from Jan 20, 2025 is above the rate Biden’s was from Jan 20 in any year of his term.

I'm inclined to accept this, but a link to some data would have been helpful.

 

[jandrese]

Musk did want to achieve savings. He's the type of person who would think, "Running the US government efficiently isn't rocket science, and I'm smarter than a rocket scientist," and severely underestimate the complexity and necessity of bureaucratic rules.

If destruction was the main goal, he wouldn't have been surprised that the destruction made him hugely unpopular.

I don't know. While I can buy Elon being the kind of guy who goes "the government is so bloated that there is plenty of low hanging fruit we can cut to reduce waste" and thinks it will be easy, I definitely can't rule out that it was mostly just an act to get the MAGA crowd on board while he targeted agencies that he personally doesn't like.

I also don't think he cares that much how unpopular he is. He thinks most of the people are just mindless NPCs and their opinion doesn't matter.

 

[ColdWetDog]

I wonder how it feels to come into the government to make cuts for efficiency sake, have that tank your reputation and your car company, only to have the same government who hired you for efficiency pass a bill that costs trillions more.

Don't overthink this. They aren't playing chess. They aren't playing checkers.

They're playing in the mud puddle.

 

[Alienmaster5000]

The US got properly fucked by this baboon. Thats what you get for voting a conman into office. I bet the US wont get rid of Trump or the republicans. The US lost their democracy in November 2024.

 

[aleph_nought]

We wouldn't have to wish death on him if he and his billionaire friends didn't intentionally damage and stack the courts making it impossible to hold them accountable through any normal means.

The only way Elon or any other of the mega rich will be brought to justice is by vigilante.

It was THEIR CHOICES that led to this. Brian Thompson spent many years of his life actively supporting a party that wants to overthrow democracy. He spent his life intentionally hurting others for his own profit. He killed by the hundreds of thousands. He was a serial killer. Him getting two bullets in the spine was justice because ALL OTHER AVENUES WERE CLOSED OFF.

Lone wolf attacks are almost impossible to predict and stop. Two people tried to assassinate Trump during his campaign; one got his head blown off by the Secret Service. JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK were killed by lone assassins who thought there were no other avenues for recourse.

Musk's and Trump's actions could put millions of people in the American heartland into severe economic hardship. Expect some extreme vigilante reactions given enough people with nothing to lose.

 

[mpfaff]

I am not sure Tesla will recover. Here is a conversation that will never happen:

Person1: I need a new car. I was thinking of buying a Tesla, but I heard that Elon Musk is a literal Nazi who buys elections and starves babies.

Person 2: That was last year. Now he just sells cars.

I was very close to buying a Tesla in 2019 when I got my Mazda. I'm very glad I didn't, and while my next car will likely be electric it will 100% not be a Tesla. I can't in good conscience fund Elon Musk pulling apart this country and making the world an objectively worse place. I can't think of any other car company that actually gives you a reason to not buy their cars.

If hell exists, his few short months in government has secured him a place in it.

 

[Alfonse]

Name a single person who has benefited by working for Trump. It always ends in catastrophe for them, whether they’re high-character like Jim Mattis or low-character like Elon.

Steve Bannon.

He scammed Trump supporters and got a Presidential pardon from it. Granted, managed to avoid Trump-created problems by never "working" for Trump in any official capacity. He was just a Trump booster who grifted Trump supporters.

 

[DrewW]

My tinfoil hat theory: DOGE could have been used as public cover to set up covert persistent access in sensitive government systems. If so, it would have provided unrivaled intelligence gathering capabilities and training data for Elon's AI ambitions.

This is a ROI approved theory. Everything the corrupt politicians do has an ROI. Trump is president because he didn’t want to die in prison, freedom has a huge ROI.

Kara Swisher agrees with you, Musk’s only possible ROI is new training data. Unless we can figure out another higher value goal for Musk we have to assume it was novel training data.

For those who would argue Trump and Musk served the country, please go stare at the rain clouds until you drown in the rain. I have worked for VCs, the megarich, and a russian oligarch (didn’t know at the time). You don’t get a Trump out of bed before Noon unless there is a financial or emotional ROI.

 

[CrystalCowboy]

Lone wolf attacks are almost impossible to predict and stop. Two people tried to assassinate Trump during his campaign; one got his head blown off by the Secret Service. JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK were killed by lone assassins who thought there were no other avenues for recourse.

Musk's and Trump's actions could put millions of people in the American heartland into severe economic hardship. Expect some extreme vigilante reactions given enough people with nothing to lose.

Yes, but it does not follow that the people suffering under those hardships will properly place the blame on Musk and/or Trump.

 

[2 Donuts]

Musk did want to achieve savings.

No. As I said in another thread:

"His primary mission was to shut down all of the federal investigations against him, which he did promptly. His secondary mission was to enrich himself with government contracts. His tertiary mission was to gain access to Americans citizens' sensitive data and the government's sensitive data. It remains to be seen whether this last item is for the sake of sale, leverage, or another nefarious purpose.

Missions accomplished."

 

[SixDegrees]

Lone wolf attacks are almost impossible to predict and stop. Two people tried to assassinate Trump during his campaign; one got his head blown off by the Secret Service. JFK, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and RFK were killed by lone assassins who thought there were no other avenues for recourse.

Musk's and Trump's actions could put millions of people in the American heartland into severe economic hardship. Expect some extreme vigilante reactions given enough people with nothing to lose.

Even if that doesn't happen, it won't stop the administration pretending it does, like Noem:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/politics/kristi-noem-migrant-arrested-threatening-trump

 

[Bash]

I wonder how it feels to come into the government to make cuts for efficiency sake, have that tank your reputation and your car company, only to have the same government who hired you for efficiency pass a bill that costs trillions more.

I doubt that Musk is even surprised... The problem here is that some people believe Musk was actually trying to make the government more efficient. That was just a lie so that Trump's supporters / the news media / etc. could believe that all the cuts were for a "good" reason.

 

[SixDegrees]

"govern his companies Tesla and SpaceX. Democratic lawmakers said Doge was a “cover-up” of a more sinister, self-serving exercise by the world’s richest person."

Sinister? How was Doge acting like a lefthander?

Ever seen a left-hander try cutting things with scissors using their dominant hand? It's like that.