Musk leaves behind upheaval and unmet expectations in Washington

1News

4 days ago

Elon Musk arrived in the nation's capital with the chain saw-wielding swagger of a tech titan who had never met a problem he couldn't solve with lots of money, long hours or a well-calibrated algorithm.
President Donald Trump was delighted to have the world's richest person — and a top campaign donor — working in his administration, talking about how he was "a smart guy" who "really cares for our country".
Musk was suddenly everywhere — holding forth in Cabinet meetings while wearing a "tech support" shirt and black MAGA hat, hoisting his young son on his shoulders in the Oval Office, flying aboard Air Force One, sleeping in the White House. Democrats described the billionaire entrepreneur as Trump's "co-president".
President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House. (Source: Associated Press)
Now that's over. Musk said this week that he's leaving his job as a senior adviser, an announcement that came after he revealed his plan to curtail political donations and he criticised the centrepiece of Trump's legislative agenda.
ADVERTISEMENT
It's a quiet exit after a turbulent entrance, and he's trailed by upheaval and unmet expectations. Thousands of people were indiscriminately laid off or pushed out — hundreds of whom had to be rehired — and some federal agencies were eviscerated.
But no one has been prosecuted for the fraud. Musk reduced his target for cutting spending from US$2 trillion (NZ$3.347 trillion) to US$1 trillion (NZ$1.6 trillion) to US$150 billion (NZ$251 billion), and even that goal may not be reached.
Musk got a seat at Trump's table and put US$250 million (NZ$418 million) behind his campaign.
Musk deployed software engineers who burrowed into sensitive databases, troubling career officials who sometimes chose to resign rather than go along. Trump brushed off concerns about Musk's lack of experience in public service or conflicts of interest from his billions of dollars in federal contracts.
His language was that of catastrophism. Excessive spending was a crisis that could only be solved by drastic measures, Musk claimed, and "if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt".
But even though he talked about his work in existential terms, he treated the White House like a playground. He brought his children to a meeting with the Indian prime minister. He let the president turn the driveway into a makeshift Tesla showroom to help boost sales. He installed an oversized screen in his office that he occasionally used to play video games.
Musk did not give federal workers the benefit of the doubt
ADVERTISEMENT
From the beginning, Musk treated federal workers with contempt. At best, they were inefficient; at worst, they were committing fraud.
People rally at Health and Human Services headquarters to protest the polices of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. (Source: Associated Press)
His team offered them a "fork in the road," meaning they could get paid to quit. Probationary employees, generally people new on the job without full civil service protection, were shown the door.
Anyone who stayed faced escalating demands, such as what became known as the "five things" emails. Musk wanted every government employee to submit a list of five things they accomplished in the previous week, and he claimed that 'failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.'
One day in February, Musk posted "CFPB RIP," plus an emoji of a tombstone. The headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the Great Recession to protect Americans from fraud and deceptive practices, was shut down and employees were ordered to stop working.
Musk had already started gutting the US Agency for International Development, a pillar of the country's foreign policy establishment and the world's largest provider of humanitarian assistance.
"Spent the weekend feeding USAID into a wood chipper," he bragged.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of everything from baby formula to biotech drugs, planned to lay off 3500 employees. But the agency was forced to rehire people who were initially deemed expendable.
Commissioner Marty Makary, who started his job after many of the cuts took place, told attendees at a recent conference that "it was hard and my job is to make sure we can heal from that".
There are also concerns about safety on public lands. The National Park Service has been bleeding staff, leaving fewer people to maintain trails, clean restrooms and guide visitors. More cuts at the Forest Service could undermine efforts to prevent and fight wildfires.
The Environmental Protection Agency faces a broad overhaul, such as gutting the Office of Research and Development, which was responsible for improving air pollution monitoring and discovering harmful chemicals in drinking water.
Not even low-profile organisations were exempt. Trump ordered the downsizing of the US Institute of Peace, a nonprofit think tank created by Congress, and Musk's team showed up to carry out his plan. The organisations' leaders were deposed, then reinstated after a court battle.
Musk made little headway at the top sources of federal spending
Thousands of civilian workers were pushed out at the Pentagon, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reducing the ranks of top generals and looking to consolidate various commands and save money.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, the Pentagon budget would increase by US$150 billion (NZ$251 billion) for a total of more than US$900 billion (NZ$1.5 trillion), under Trump's spending proposal working its way through Congress.
Musk also faced blowback for targeting Social Security, which provides monthly benefits to retirees and some children. He suggested that the popular program was 'a Ponzi scheme' and the government could save between $500 billion and $700 billion by tackling waste and fraud.
His popularity cratered even though Americans often agreed with his premise that the federal government is bloated and wasteful, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.
Just 33% of US adults had a favourable view of Musk in April, down from 41% in December. In addition, 65% said Musk had too much influence over the federal government.
Musk talked of staggering savings but delivered modest results
During a campaign rally in October, Musk said he could find "at least US$2 trillion (NZ$3.347 trillion)" in spending cuts. In January, before Trump was inaugurated, he revised by saying, "if we try for US$2 trillion (NZ$3.347 trillion), we've got a good shot at getting one".
But in April, at a Cabinet meeting, Musk provided a different target. He was "excited to announce" that they could reach US$150 billion (NZ$251 billion) in savings during the current fiscal year.
ADVERTISEMENT
In the end, said Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies for the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, "they set themselves up for failure".