Posted on 05/30/2025 7:05:59 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has led an effort in the Trump administration to cut jobs and programs across the federal government, stood by President Trump’s side on Friday in the Oval Office, officially for the last time as a government employee. But neither man was clear whether Musk’s active hand in government is truly over.
Their display of unity comes after Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, issued a series of criticisms of Trump’s policies, both directly and through his companies, and as reports emerge that the billionaire fought fierce battles with the president’s aides and has relied on potent drugs while serving as Trump’s confidante.
“Nobody like him,” Trump said of Musk at the White House event. “He had to go through the slings and the arrows, which is a shame, because he’s an incredible patriot.”
“Many of the DOGE people, Elon, are staying behind. So they’re not leaving. And Elon’s really not leaving,” Trump added. “He’s going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling. It’s his baby.”
Musk praised the team of DOGE, an acronym for the Department of Government Efficiency program, for saving what he said was $175 billion in government spending. The program had initially set a more lofty goal of cutting $2 trillion, and it is unclear if Musk’s team has even met its revised figure, with the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service documenting an increase in federal spending over this time last year.
“The DOGE team is doing an incredible job,” Musk said. “I’ll continue to be visiting here, and be a friend and advisor to the president.”
Whether Musk continues in his role will have legal consequences. As a special government employee, Musk is obligated to end his service, now that the...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Being a patriot today means you’re a conservative, and Democrats hate conservatives. I don’t think Elon is very religious, but it’s the same with anyone who believes in the Bible. Democrats are against whatever the Bible is for, and for whatever it is against.
Sounds like an opportunity to Gitmo’ some ‘Rats.
Trump was speaking rhetorically, of course, about DOGE. I am sure Musk will be visiting the White House at various times, considering he is involved in national defense.
Democrats are such pricks.
America needs a 2Bil cut of grift.
Cool. Make the left waste time and money on this lawsuit.
Remind me again what position Norm Eisen, or Podesta had in the Biden administration? Yet, they could stop in whenever they pleased and chime in on whatever.
But for Musk, he is supposed to be incommunicado?
I heard and take it with a grain of salt, Musk can end this time of service, as a special employee and soon after, Trump can bring him back as a special employee, 2 more times.
These TDS clowns just never give up!
Apparently the only cure for TDS is an asteroid hitting them.
They can easily shave $1 trillion, and probably even $2 trillion, if they were given time and a freer hand. Getting rid of the fraud is the low hanging fruit. The waste is also fairly easy once you identify it for what it is. Abuse may be harder to detect and depends on how you define it but things like giving every government employee unique perks anything from news subscriptions (which is a subsidy to News orgs but it’s also a way to get line employees politically involved when they should just do their task regardless of the politics) to “company credit cards” where they can buy “office supplies” and run up “meals and entertainment” expenses and office space they do not use.
But the real meat of it will be in the “Efficiency” part of DOGE. Just a couple of simple examples. Here in CA they have slowly automated the DMV. I can log in and do all kinds of routine tasks that I used to have to go to the DMV office. But is the DMV smaller? Do they have fewer employees? Fewer offices? Heck no. They are pushing their jobs into the public which is convenient for everyone but they expect the same budget and same pay. I also do some work with the Trademark and Patent office. So much of that is automated now. Is the USPTO budget smaller? At least that office is somewhat a Constitutional office but still, it should save money as it gets more efficient. Inspectors that do redundant tasks (state and federal, or agencies that work the same areas of interest, should be combined leaving some jobs cut. And all up and down government they need to implement efficiencies, like automation and computers and consolidation that should cut costs. But they will resist that. Workers will fight it. Congress will fight it. If you tell Congress the Dept of Education can operate on 90% less money would they slash its budget? Heck no. That is the crux of the problem. Give DOGE a couple of years to watch all the ways government operates and they could find $1 trillion in fat to trim. Services would not be cut, the system would just work better and faster. DOGE needs a lot of air cover and political support but the system is either resisting them, or ignoring them hoping it will fade away after a few years. Maybe only a small percentage of government wants them to succeed.
so we can assume that everyone fighting against DOGE is feeding from the trough, PERIOD
He is not going to let go of his backdoors...
One thing Trump does exceedingly well is to troll the Left....
The reason the democrats are questioning is that Musk can only work for the government for 130 days without becoming an official. So he used up his days. They way to fix that is have trump officially put him in a government position with zero need for confirmation. Easy fix.
Musk saved us 16 billion which is more than anyone else has. Sure he thought he’d find 2 trillion, but unfortunately couldn’t find anymore. I’m happy with 16 billion. Put it towards the debt even if it only covers 3 minutes.
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