Well, my favorite topic, Elon Musk, will be a lot more “undercover” soon. Musk has announced his time in the White House, and working with DOGE, the organization I love to hate, is coming to an end. I was wondering if he would actually be leaving or not. After he got embarrassed in Wisconsin by the loss of his (and tRump’s) candidate for the Supreme Court in the state race, he got awfully quiet. No more press conferences with Agent Orange. Nothing. Still, I was wondering. CNN has been good to me tonight, so have some quotes.
CNN has previously reported that DOGE is poised to continue its work even as Musk steps back, with staffers to remain in place, embedded across federal agencies, for months or years to come.
Musk, who was limited to working 130 days as a special government employee, will begin the offboarding process, which essentially includes paperwork, on Wednesday night, a White House official said.
In recent weeks, Musk had begun stepping back from full-time government work to focus on his companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, which have struggled in part as a result of Musk’s alliance with the Trump administration.
Ha. We all know that Tesla is in a hole in the ground, but the Muskrat might be able to save it before the first shovel of dirt gets tossed in. Europe hates them, and the China EV “takeover” has been pretty big. I must say I don’t remember SpaceX being in the news at all, so that bit’s embarrassing for me. Oops. Let’s have some more quotes.
Musk’s post comes after he raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package, saying in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that he believes it would raise the US budget deficit and undercut efforts by DOGE.
“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” he said in the interview. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
Trump on Wednesday brushed off Musk’s comments that the bill did not contain enough cuts, saying he expected more changes to the legislation as it goes through the Senate. The president also said he’s not happy with every part of the bill and that there will be negotiations on it.
Well gee, of *course* he brushed it off. Now that Elon is leaving, he can be as nasty as he wants. Yea, the divorce is final. Ouch. I know Muskrat is nuts, but he deserved at least a little courtesy for getting something done for The Cheeto Prophet. Too much to hope for. He’s outlived his usefulness, so out the door onto the trash pile he goes. We’ve seen it before. Why should Trumpy be any different this time?
Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday also signaled that House Republicans are “eager and ready” to formalize spending cuts based on DOGE’s findings as soon as Trump’s team makes the official request to Congress.
Under Musk’s leadership over the first four months of the Trump administration, DOGE has upended the federal government. At least 121,000 federal workers were laid off or targeted for layoffs in Trump’s first 100 days, and thousands more took buyout offers. Federal grants and programs have been slashed, and then at times reinstated after court challenges.
The Trump administration has been vague about the size of DOGE and the scope of its efforts after Musk departs.
As Musk steps back from the Trump administration, he announced last week that he plans to spend “a lot less” money on politics in the future, but it’s still not clear whether the remarks signal any change in his pledge to commit $100 million into political groups controlled by the president. Musk previously spent more than $290 million to help get Trump and GOP congressional candidates elected in November.
A lot less? Best he think about Tesla and SpaceX before he starts spending any money somewhere else. I’ll bet that SpaceX needs just as much help as Tesla does – we just don’t know about it because it’s been kept quiet. If it finally comes out, a lot of shareholders and the board will be VERY unhappy, as I expect they are already. Elon has enough troubles. Oh, and he needs to keep up his new town in Texas, which is where the Super Heavy lives and launches from. He’ll have a lot of time for contemplation and shoulda, coulda, woulda. My favorite topic exits stage right. Thanks for sticking with me!
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