Elon Musk pledges online transparency for the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.)

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, said on November 13th that all actions of the ‘informal’ D.O.G.E. agency will be posted online to maximize transparency. He added that the agency will also have a leaderboard for ‘insanely dumb’ tax dollar spending.

Musk asked the public to share information anytime they thought D.O.G.E. was cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful. He jested that the D.O.G.E. leaderboard would be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining.

Elon Musk promises the newly established D.O.G.E. will operate openly 

Elon Musk stated on X that the newly established D.O.G.E. agency will operate in full transparency. He also floated an assessment system that threatened to fire wasteful employees and proposed offering ‘generous severance packages’ for laid-off government workers. According to CNN, the Tesla boss suggested that Trump form a government efficiency commission in August, to which Trump responded, “I’d love it.” Musk later posted on X a picture of himself standing on a podium labeled ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ and the caption, “I’m willing to serve.”

The SpaceX CEO told the crowd at the Madison Square Garden rally in New York City that he would fix the wastage of taxpayers’ money through the D.O.G.E. commission. CNN reported that Elon Musk had embraced the idea of being the ‘Secretary of Cost-Cutting.’ Musk asserted that the department would cut about $2 trillion of the government’s annual expenditures. Experts, however, expressed doubts about Musk’s ability to slash such a huge amount from the government’s budget. 

“We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook.”

~ Elon Musk

Trump said the commission would develop an action plan to eradicate fraud and improper spending totally, thus helping to save trillions of dollars. He added that the department’s work would end no later than July 4th, 2026.

Summer thinks Musk’s suggested $2T federal budget cut is ‘idiotic’

Subtly referencing Musk’s significant layoffs at X, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summer said there was no $2 trillion to be gained from massive government layoffs. Summer respectfully highlighted that Musk’s suggestion of a $2 trillion federal budget cut was idiotic because the 15% set aside for payroll was nowhere near $2 trillion. To achieve trillions in cuts, Summer said that Elon Musk would have to look at other sectors like Medicare and Social Security, which Trump had promised not to touch. He added that Musk would be lucky to achieve $200 billion in budget cuts since the scope for curbing waste was limited. Musk, however, had claimed that he would use AI to trim the $2 trillion in a ‘nice way.’ 

Glen Hubbard, economist and former dean of Columbia University’s Business School, weighed in on the matter, saying it would be difficult to slash that much money from the federal budget. He pointed out that it was mathematically impossible to find $2 trillion if defense, interest expenses, and entitlement programs were off limits. 

Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Musk’s commission would have to be given a broader mandate to be cost-effective. He said the commission would need to review the largest federal spending programs, such as defense, Social Security , and Medicare. 

CNN reported that the main union for federal workers who were already bracing for the likelihood of layoffs during Trump’s second term also blasted the idea of a D.O.G.E. commission.