On Friday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick criticized Tesla Inc. Tsla CEO Elon Musk’s Leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency of Doge and said that the billionaire gave priority to shooters above reducing waste, fraud and abuse, the undermining of the original mission of the initiative.
Lutnick: Musk followed the wrong lesson from Twitter
Talk about the premiere Lutnick said of the Axios show that Musk applied his Twitter-Stijl Playbook for the federal government, the aggressive cutting of jobs, but achieving little in terms of meaningful savings.
“I thought Elon became entangled in the objectives of others,” said Lutnick. “The focus should have been on reducing the waste, fraud and abuse and the people you could do over time … I thought he got it back.”
Lutnick added that the government could probably be cut by 10% to 15%, but he argued that change should come through cabinet secretaries and their departments should be carefully evaluated instead of by major dismissals.
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Doo -savings fall short of elevated goals
Musk started with spearhead doge in January 2025 after president Donald Trump Return to the office and promises to eliminate $ 1 trillion up to $ 2 trillion to annual federal editions.
He got off four months later. At the time, the program had only documented about $ 175 billion in savings. Nowadays the website contains savings of $ 206 billion, largely of contract cancellations, fraud detection, sales of assets and staff reductions.
Musk’s short and controversial term
Musk’s short-lived term of office of four months was defined by sweeping on federal agencies, the closure of USAID and a series of controversial messages, including “fork in the way” dismissal e-mails.
His approach reflected his movements on Twitter, where the workforce was dramatically cut after his takeover of 2022.
Despite the expectations, Trump Musk honored in May with a ceremonial golden key to the White House. At that time, Musk insisted that Doge would “only get stronger” and described it as “a way of life”.
Collision with the exit of Trump and Musk
Musk resigned after he publicly criticized Trump’s budget plan, which he mentioned harmful to the mission of Doge.
In a later interview, Musk admitted that he might have spent too much time on politics and described his involvement with the government as incorrectly assigned time.
Doge continues to work without a musk or many of his allies, with the current leadership aimed at issuing cuts on dismissals.
“Doge still strives that waste, fraud and abuse, I think it will be effective,” said Lutnick. “Less effective than I had hoped, but I think it will still be effective.”
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