Summary

Elon Musk’s DOGE faces mounting pressure to show achievements amid criticism. Staffers, under pressure from Trump administration officials, seek public relations wins to counter negative headlines.

Cuts to federal offices led to mass layoffs, and efforts to modernize government services have been chaotic. DOGE prioritizes speed over security and protecting sensitive information.

Trump has distanced himself, stating agency chiefs, not Musk, control department cuts, preferring a “scalpel” over a “hatchet” approach. Public opinion has turned against DOGE, with 48% disapproving versus 34% approving, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.

With limited time before their tenure ends, DOGE officials are desperate to show results.

  • radiohead37@lemmynsfw.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 days ago

    Typical of useless employees: show some results even if they are in detriment to the business. The important thing is to show that you are doing something.

  • Roguelazer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    Part of me wonders whether the whole thing is just a set up so Trump can look good for shutting them down…

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      2 days ago

      No, that would require planning and forethought.

      DOGE was always just an excuse to fire a bunch of government workers, cancel contracts (except for Musk), and run the government into the ground. If trump did fire Musk for overreach it would be afger the damage is done and trump will just proclaim mission accomplished.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 days ago

      You’re giving too much forethought for a plan, but Trump thinks that way about everyone. He’s not just a bully but a toxic boss who always has someone lined up to be the fall guy.

      The goal was always to fire a bunch of workers and replace them with sycophants: people actually trying to do their job inhibited the damage in trumps first term, so nope the priority is sycophants. Sycophants. everywhere. But every action needs a fall guy

  • cyphear@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 days ago

    Seriously, Musk is fit… Fit for a short tour of the inside of a whicker basket.

  • sloppychops@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    2 days ago

    The fall-out between Trump and Musk is going to be explosive! And it will come. Sooner than we think, I’d guess.

    If Canadian and European movie theatres want to boost attendance, they might want to think about screening the whole thing.

    When Trump inevitably threatens to have him deported, it’s going to be the comedy event of the year. Oscar worthy.

    • hotspur@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      2 days ago

      When they were selling DOGE during the campaign, the pitch was they’d have a year or something to do their thing. The EO might have it spelled out can’t recall. But they also said they would just be an advisory group? Not insider threat hackers and political commissars at the top of every agency. Not sure why they are sweating a time limit since they dont care about any other law, regulation or protocol. I guess if they don’t deliver enough, Trump won’t do another EO extending their presence? They’re literally reworking agency stuff so that the DOGE staff have to sign off on commissioners actions, hiring etc so are they just going to revert that once the clock strikes midnight for DOGE?

      I suppose the idea is that the admin wants to lock in all the creepy shit from project 2025 prior to mid terms since they know that all of it will end up being wildly unpopular and will result in republican losses in congress and potentially gridlock from that point forward… but again, their playbook essentially calls for the end of democracy, so why are they sweating something like the midterms…

  • makyo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    2 days ago

    With limited time before their tenure ends, DOGE officials are desperate to show results.

    Uh first I’m hearing of this

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    2 days ago

    Defunding the nation, and undermining its function, is the win they wanted, and they’re getting it.

    People forget the point is to hand things over to corporate America. Hence this article is out of touch, and based on the author’s feelings about Musk’s feeling…

    …whilst completely being ignorant of the plan. The plan is corporate run libertarian fifedoms. Corporate mini-states.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      The plan is corporate run libertarian fifedoms. Corporate mini-states.

      Or as we used to call them back when we were still a geopolitical enemy of Russia, “oligarchs.”

  • Blackout@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    2 days ago

    There’s still time to die a hero Elon. All you have to do is commit hari-kari and I will build you a statue.

  • redlemace@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’d say it’s predictable … Had it been a success I think Trump would be shouting “One of my master moves, this is the mother of all my moves” Now we get to read “Trump has distanced himself” meaning it’s failing and Musk is gonna be sacrificed without a thought “I don’t know what Musk did, he acted like a loose cannon but I fired him for his incompetence”

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 days ago

      The people Trump fired this way in the past didn’t pay for his campaign.

      Trump works for Musk, not the other way around.

      • MrVilliam@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        30
        ·
        2 days ago

        True, but what does musk have left to give to trump? If he’s no longer useful, trump will have no problem dumping him and moving on. As soon as he thinks it’s more beneficial to turn on musk than it is to suck his dick, he will. Loyalty is one way for him.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          2 days ago

          Elon has said he will spend the money to drive out any Republican that votes against Trump. Elon controls Congress.

          • Ledericas@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            12 hours ago

            I read that somewhere, both Elon and Trump are in a codependent relationship financially and socially.

        • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          I think its a game of “who owns the zeitgeist?” Its why “Rumble” exists; why fascists sought their own media ecosystems; its why Elon bought twitter.

          There is some threshold where another billion buys you no more power, or at least, significantly less than your last billion. Hence buying a the worlds largest microphone, twitter, for what seemed like an overpriced market value.

          So if Elon controls Trumps access; or even more threateningly, if Elon captures the zeitgeist, and Trump is no longer in control of narratives, or Elon is able to create and inject his own, thats a real material threat.

          Trump is going to die soon; whoever inherits this cult is the real threat.

          • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            Do cults inherit well?

            The leadership of the DPRK transitioned across generations, but there was plenty of institutional alignment and wheel greasing.

            Trump will be trying to negotiate with the reaper for six months after he’s dead. I can’t imagine he considers his mortality, let alone in the context of anything that has to survive after his departure. There will be a free for all to grab his mantle.

        • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          I’m pretty sure musk is still the richest man in the world (at least on paper, who knows what people like Putin have hidden away). Until that changes there is a .00001% chance of trump and musk’s relationship deteriorating

      • gothic_lemons@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        If you think Trump cares if people did things for him, even Musk, maybe you should talk to one of the dozens of contractors Trump has stiffed over the years.

  • RattlerSix@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    They’ll make something up. If they actually care about corruption, and I don’t believe they do, that shit takes a lot of time to uncover. You need subject matter experts, forensic accountants and a bunch of lawyers, not a handful of 20 year old tech bros

  • ArghlBarghlFooFera@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    2 days ago

    Next: Elon Musk will try to fake one and will pull a full on Eric-Cartman-style “screw you guys, I’m going home” when his incompetence is inevitably revealed…

  • QuarkVsOdo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    13 hours ago

    Like all his others companies.

    • SpaceX has exploding star ships
    • StarLink comes with so many ties, that alternatives are highly sought after
    • Neural link might already be defunct, I don’t know
    • His stake in OpenAI is too complicated to follow
    • Tesla has 3 models you could buy, none of them is FSD yet, one is the Cyberstuck, no truck, no robots.
    • Boring company was just fluff and BS, since a tunnel that’s only 1 lane wide is a safety nightmare and hyperloop is like the simpisons “monorail” Episode

    Maybe at some point in his mid 50ties he should have focused on one thing.

    • Comtief@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      10 hours ago

      Maybe at some point in his mid 50ties he should have focused on one thing.

      He seems to be focused on twitter posting.

      • QuarkVsOdo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        12 hours ago

        Yes and no. The engines and upright landing is very good… designing&Testing unbound by yearly grant applications but with “fuck you money” really propelled the industry forward.

        But they cut so many corners.

      • Flic@mstdn.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        13 hours ago

        @Fredthefishlord @QuarkVsOdo all his companies basically exist to siphon off government funding that should be going to something more worthy. In the case of SpaceX, look what’s happening to NASA now. And with the Hyperloop, he openly said he promoted that to take attention and money to prevent the development of high speed rail

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        12 hours ago

        SpaceX is not some virtue of musk, he also pollutes heavily, and ignore safety standards to launch all those in texas

        • Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          9 hours ago

          They have 95% success rate for landing boosters in a relatively new technology, saving loads in terms of trash and pollution (if that’s even a metric somebody is remotely interested in for space travel).

          This is a huge leap. Probably not worth giving Musk credit for, but still.

      • Darkmoon_UK@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        7 hours ago

        Agreed, I despise Musk as much as any sane person does now, but I just can’t get on board with this prevalent behaviour of indiscriminately trashing everything about a person who you don’t like.

        Just be honest! He clearly has played a big part in achieving some spectacular results: Whether you think that was in engineering, or by cunning manipulation all the way up; the fact is SpaceX have achieved feats nobody else has, and I don’t believe it would have happened without Musk.

        None of that changes the fact he is a cunt, but dishonesty in criticism only weakens it.

        • Ricaz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          9 hours ago

          I like this place. If this was in reddit, you giving even a little bit of credit to the man would leave you with -200 and probably banned.

          It’s almost like the world is nuanced and not just red vs blue…

      • frezik@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 hours ago

        So much of the criticism focuses on Starship, specifically. Starship has never claimed to be anything other than a test program. Look back into the history of NASA test programs and you’ll fine lots of exploded pieces of rockets. Starship is also moving along a whole lot better than the SLS at a comparable stage of the development track. People bleating about this clearly don’t have a lot of knowledge about rockets and their history.

        Safety is somewhat valid. Obviously, exploding rockets over the Gulf of Mexico is not a good thing, but the chances of debris actually hitting a plane are minuscule. See Big Sky Theory, which is the basis for a lot of air traffic policy. It’s just that the aviation industry has extremely tight safety standards, and so they divert planes.

        Falcon 9 also exists, and now has a better track record than Soyuz (the previous gold standard). People making these arguments seem to conveniently leave that out.

        Now, environmental standards, how Musk is trying to gut NASA and the FAA, and how the company never would have survived without government subsidies? Yes, absolutely focus on those. Also, the fact that SpaceX employees are mostly insulated from their idiot CEO. They’re the real heroes of the company.

        In a different Administration, I think SpaceX should be nationalized and run something like the USPS or Amtrak. NASA shouldn’t make their own rockets anymore. They’re really bad at making anything close to cost effective.