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President Donald Trump has praised Elon Musk for his leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as Democrats continue to criticize Musk’s role in government.
Some shit you should know before you read: Shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) unprecedented authority to overhaul federal agencies, with a mandate to eliminate waste and streamline operations. Moving at a pace unheard of in Washington, DOGE claims to have already identified and cut over a billion dollars in government inefficiencies, largely by canceling contracts and leveraging artificial intelligence to audit spending. Unlike traditional government agencies that follow strict bureaucratic processes and congressional oversight, DOGE operates more like a private-sector tech startup—emphasizing speed, automation, and aggressive cost-cutting.
What’s going on now: While meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump offered strong praise for Elon Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), emphasizing the agency’s aggressive crackdown on government waste. “Elon is doing a great job,” Trump told reporters. “He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste. You see it with the USAID, but you’re going to see it even more so with other agencies and other parts of government.” The president highlighted DOGE’s actions against the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization he described as a “fraud,” arguing that “very little” of its funding was “put to good use” and that much of the money spent was “corrupt [and] ridiculous.”
Trump credited Musk and his team for reducing USAID’s workforce from over 10,000 employees to fewer than 300, calling it an example of how DOGE is “cleaning up the mess” left by previous administrations. He also suggested that the initiative could bring the federal budget closer to being balanced for the first time in years. “I think we’re going to be very close to balancing budgets,” Trump said, adding that Musk’s team has “a staff that’s fantastic” and has been eager to take on this challenge for a long time.
This comes as officials within DOGE are using artificial intelligence to rapidly analyze government spending, contracts, and personnel data in an effort to cut costs and eliminate what they deem unnecessary programs. Leveraging AI tools through Microsoft Azure, DOGE has gained access to sensitive financial records across multiple agencies, including the Department of Education and the Treasury Department, to scrutinize expenditures with remarkable speed. Unlike traditional government audits, which can take months or years, DOGE’s AI-driven approach allows for near-instantaneous data processing, identifying contracts, grants, and entire offices for potential elimination. While proponents argue this technology is making government more efficient, critics warn that AI-driven decision-making lacks transparency, may introduce errors, and poses significant privacy risks, as it involves feeding vast amounts of sensitive federal data into external cloud-based systems.
Support & Criticism of Musk: Elon Musk’s role in DOGE has sparked intense debate, with critics arguing that his position represents a clear conflict of interest, given that his companies receive $20 billion annually in federal contracts. Democrats and ethics watchdogs have raised alarms that Musk, as a defense contractor, now has access to sensitive government financial systems, potentially allowing him to reshape federal spending in ways that benefit his business empire. Others have accused him of operating outside legal boundaries, as DOGE has rapidly seized control over agency budgets and personnel decisions with little congressional oversight. Meanwhile, Republicans have largely rallied behind Musk, praising his aggressive cost-cutting measures and framing his efforts as a necessary purge of government inefficiency. Some have gone even further, claiming Musk is dismantling the so-called “deep state” by slashing funding for agencies and programs they argue have been weaponized against the American people.
