--- title: "Elon Musk’s DOGE Has Been a Dismal Failure" description: "Judging by the absolute chaos that has unfurled, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency experiment has been a disaster." date: "2025-04-24" modified: "2025-04-24" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-dismal-failure" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "doge" - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "white house" --- # Elon Musk’s DOGE Has Been a Dismal Failure ![Judging by the absolute chaos that has unfurled, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency experiment has been a disaster.]() *\Image: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images\* It may have felt like a whole lot longer, but we're less than 100 days into billionaire Elon Musk's grand experiment of trying to shave trillions of dollars from the United States government's budget. And judging by the absolute chaos that has unfurled, his Department of Government Efficiency experiment has been nothing short of a disaster. Besides [finding little]() in terms of actual "waste and fraud" and [massively cutting his ambitions down]() from $2 trillion to a mere $150 billion earlier this month, Musk's actions have had little to show except endless drama and suffering. Millions of people are in danger of [being cut off from Social Security](), the Internal Revenue Service is [struggling to keep it together]() at the height of tax season, and international aid organizations are warning that [extreme hunger and starvation will be on the rise]() thanks to massive cuts to US foreign aid. And while Musk promised during a recent Tesla earnings call that he would be spending less time overseeing these budget cuts, White House officials, including Cabinet members, are [getting increasingly fed up with the billionaire's meddling](). As [*Axios* reported]() this week, Musk was involved in a shouting match — in earshot of president Donald Trump — with treasury secretary Scott Bessent. The argument was reportedly about Musk trying to influence Bessent's decision over who to pick to lead the IRS. Vocal disagreements have become so commonplace that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently had to defend them as a "normal part of any healthy policy process," a bewildering statement that defies common sense. "And ultimately everyone knows they serve at the pleasure of President Trump," she added. Musk's actions in Washington, DC, have proven disastrous for his popularity — just as he [predicted himself last fall]() — with the [majority of Americans now holding an unfavorable view of him](). His relationship with Trump, which flourished last year during and immediately after the election, has been tested again and again. Case in point, Trump [had to remind his Cabinet]() last month that they were the ones in charge, not Musk. The president's disastrous trade war has also driven a wedge between the two, with [Musk breaking rank this month](), raging against tariffs threatening his businesses' bottom line. Even whether DOGE is saving the government any money at all remains dubious. Last month, the Treasury Department and IRS officials predicted a decrease of more than ten percent in tax receipts, which would amount to more than $500 billion in lost revenue, as the [*Washington Post* reported at the time](). "DOGE is not a serious exercise," Manhattan Institute fellow Jessica Riedl [told *Reuters*](), estimating that DOGE had only saved $5 billion to date and predicting that Musk's efforts could ultimately cost the government more than it saves. Mass layoffs have also repeatedly involved [DOGE making mistakes](), forcing agencies to [immediately rehire fired staffers](). Instead of meaningfully addressing waste and unnecessary red tape, the Trump administration has attempted to justify the freezing of countless grants as a way to [root out so-called "woke" ideology](), a bogeyman used to defend a shift to a purportedly more meritocratic society. Judging by his "progress" so far, Musk's stint at the White House has been a failure of epic proportions. Which leaves the question: what was it all for? Could the [cruelty itself be the point](), as *The Atlantic*'s Adam Serwer [argued]() in a 2018 essay about Trump's first presidency? Given Musk's [long-held reputation]() for being a "horrible boss" and his [well-established disdain]() for the public sector and its workers, it often feels that way. **More on DOGE:** *[Elon Musk Realizes He's Dragging Tesla Into Ruin]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()