To name Musk’s DC tenure contentious can be an understatement. As a person accustomed to getting what he needs and functioning as a strong government, he swept via Washington with a figurative chainsaw, slashing budgets, firing employees, and making audacious energy grabs. Musk’s brash conduct angered authorities workers and alienated would-be allies, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Finally, the unhealthy blood reached a fever pitch, and Musk had a minor bodily altercation with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Politico particulars the beautiful fallout. By late Might, DOGE and Musk had misplaced favor with President Trump, and White Home aides started pushing again extra forcefully in opposition to the fledgling authorities company. When Musk was formally given a farewell by the White Home on Might thirtieth, it additionally pushed out his right-hand man, Steve Davis.
However Davis, an engineer who had labored intently with Musk for over 20 years, together with at DOGE, merely refused to go away. He stepped in to attempt to take the reins, however this didn’t sit effectively with lots of the remaining DOGE staffers. However others remained loyal, basically splitting the division in two.
When these uncomfortable with Davis’ management, provided that he was now not a authorities worker, tried to plan for DOGE’s future with out him, Davis accused them of staging a coup. The White Home shortly rooted out his loyalists, placing an finish to Davis’ transient try to consolidate management in lower than two weeks.
What adopted was a collection of restructurings, modifications in management, and in the end, the top of DOGE as a centralized group. When Reuters reached out to the White Home to ask in regards to the standing of DOGE earlier this month, it was instructed, “that doesn’t exist.”
Musk rode into Washington with large ambitions of slashing authorities spending by trillions of {dollars}. As a substitute, throughout his transient time in DC, authorities spending truly elevated, and he left behind many burned bridges.