In the last few hours persistent voices have spoken of abandonment by Elon Musk of DOGEDepartment for Government’s efficiency. The news went around the world, but both the White House and Musk himself wanted deny her through the social platform X.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesman for the American administration, defined the indiscretion “garbage”, while Musk has raised the dose with a dry “Yeah, fake news“And too Donald Trump intervened on the matter, stating that Tesla’s CEO “At one point he will return” to deal with his companies full timebut only after completing the work with the doge. What is certain is that, as “special public employee”, Spacex’s CTO can work on the doge only for a maximum of 130 days a year, a limit that will expire between May and June. The White House had initially hypothesized to extend her collaboration, but now it seems that Musk himself wants to end his commitment.
What is the doge and what are its duties
The Department for the efficiency of the government (doge) is a temporary commission with deadline July 2026 Created by Trump in the first days of his presidency for streamlining American bureaucracy, digitizing public services and cutting costs, whose coordination has been entrusted to Elon Musk. To do this, the doge collaborates with the USDS (United States Digital Services) and involved experts in computer science, law and human resources, starting cuts in public spending, transfers of employees and layoffs. All measures that have unleashed both praise and criticism: some officials seem to be satisfied with the results, others are concerned by Musk’s unrequesting and his way of managing things.
The massive downsizing of the public administration operated in recent months has raised several doubts: so far, 75,000 employees have accepted very generous good years, but these funds were not foreseen in the federal budget. According to the New York Times, the savings obtained could be lower than the forecasts, while the legal disputes on layoffs could further complicate the situation. In the past, similar measures were managed by Congress, as happened in 1994 with the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act under the administration Clintonbut here, the management seems to be unclear, increasing the risk of legal clashes and political crises.
THE mass layoffs in various agencies, including HHS, IRS, NASA, SSA and the Defense Department, as well as The privatization of the postal service (USPS) and the Closing the Department of Educationhave raised concerns about the government’s ability to provide essential services and led to legal disputes and public protests. In addition, the doge claims to have saved 140 billion dollars Through these measures, but the figures are contested due to alleged calculation errors. In addition, the declared goal of reducing the expenditure of $ 1,000 billion by the end of Musk’s mandate is considered unrealistic by many experts.
One of the most controversial aspects of the project, then, concerns The composition of the Commission: In fact, the decree establishing the doge does not specify how many members are part of it or what their precise tasks are. Federal agencies must only indicate at least four experts, including a lawyer, a computer engineer and a specialist in human resources that support the work of the department.
Net of everything, however, the real knot to dissolve would seem to be The powers of the doge: in theory, the department would have an exclusively consultative role, therefore it could not cut funds already approved by the congress: according to the federal law, in fact, only Parliament can authorize structural cuts. For this reason, many experts believe that the doge’s decision to dismantle agencies such as USAID (the International Development Agency) can be declared unconstitutional from the Supreme Court.
Growing voltages also for Tesla
The role of Elon Musk in the Trump government immediately had a strong impact on his companies, in particular on Tesla: Initially, the value of the actions of the car manufacturer had splashed by 70%. But the wind changes quickly, and the concerns about the slowdown of sales and for the time that Musk was dedicating to the doge did lose a good part of those earnings. For this reason, the rumors that announced its alleged abandonment of the Department for the Efficiency of the Government had the opposite effect and therefore reporting the title high. A clear signal of the fact that investors would like Musk concentrated on companies.
There are also protests on the management of the doge: some activists have organized events against Teslaaccusing it of benefiting from the doge’s choices; The “Tesla Takedown” movement promoted boycott and protests, fearing that Musk’s political involvement damages the image of the company.
