His government experiment is fast becoming a cautionary tale – and one that even Trump may soon tire of defending
When Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency – Doge- the billionaire tech mogul vowed to revolutionise the US bureaucracy.
Instead, his tenure has spiralled into chaos.
From delivering a Nazi salute during the inauguration and sending Tesla’s stock into freefall, to wielding a chainsaw alongside Argentina’s President Javier Milei at a conservative conference, Musk has become a walking PR disaster for the Trump administration.
But the crown jewel of his failures is Doge itself. Once hailed by Trump as the answer to government waste, the department has fallen into disarray. Mass resignations, mounting lawsuits and financial blunders have turned Doge into a bureaucratic circus that undermines the President.
As it lurches further into dysfunction, Musk’s carefully crafted image as a shrewd businessman is crumbling. Here’s how Doge is falling apart, one gaffe at a time.
Legal woes
The Trump-Musk strategy of “flooding the zone” – a phrase coined by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to describe overwhelming the information ecosystem with disinformation – is beginning to backfire. The courts are catching up with the chaos Musk has unleashed through Doge’s mass job cuts.
Over the past month, multiple federal courts have ruled against the department, forcing it to reverse mass layoffs and reinstate thousands of unlawfully dismissed workers.
Court documents reveal that nearly 25,000 terminations carried out under Doge were deemed illegal. Judges have ordered the administration to reinstate the workers, citing procedural violations and political targeting.
In another major ruling on Tuesday, Judge Theodore Chuang declared Doge’s abrupt shutdown of digital systems at the US Agency for International Development’s (USAid) unconstitutional. He ordered Doge to immediately restore access to email, payment, and security networks, finding that the sudden closure had “likely violated” employees’ rights.
Separately, the US Institute of Peace filed a lawsuit accusing Doge of attempting to unlawfully seize its headquarters. According to court filings, Doge staff arrived at its Washington office and allegedly sought to take control of its systems. When staff refused to comply, Doge operatives called the police. The courts have since blocked Doge from further interference with the independent organisation.
Far from making government more efficient, Musk’s heavy-handed reforms are creating a legal minefield, bogging down agencies in costly lawsuits.
The department of inefficiency
Despite Musk’s boasts of slashing billions in government waste, a New York Times investigation found that the department’s financial reporting was riddled with errors, double-counting, and inflated figures.
In one glaring case, Doge claimed an $8bn saving on a terminated contract – but the real figure was just $8m. In another, the department took credit for cancelling a $1.9bn deal, only for it to emerge that the contract had already been scrapped under the Biden administration.
The investigation found that more than 40 per cent of the contracts Doge listed as cost-cutting measures actually showed no savings at all. Some were mistakenly recorded as terminated when they were still active. Others were counted multiple times, artificially inflating the department’s reported savings.
The sloppy accounting has alarmed watchdog groups, who warn that Doge’s lack of financial oversight could expose government agencies to fraud and waste – the very inefficiencies Musk claimed he would eliminate.
Rifts in Trump’s cabinet
At a recent Oval Office meeting, tensions flared between Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the scale of Doge’s layoffs. Musk reportedly accused Rubio of dragging his feet on government cuts, mocking him for only dismissing one Doge employee. Rubio, visibly irritated, pushed back, citing over 1,500 State Department buyouts.
Trump, who initially backed Musk’s aggressive reforms, eventually sided with Rubio, announcing that future workforce reductions would be made with a “scalpel” rather than Musk’s “hatchet.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also clashed with the Tesla billionaire over Doge’s cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), warning that the layoffs were undermining air traffic safety. Musk insisted people were hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programmes were working in control towers. Duffy said the young staff of Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers at a time when there has been a surge in plane crashes.
Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins has reportedly warned that Doge’s cuts could jeopardise healthcare services for thousands of veterans – a key Trump voting bloc. With growing resistance from senior officials, Musk’s standing within the administration is becoming increasingly fragile.
Musk’s government experiment is fast becoming a cautionary tale – and one that even Trump may soon tire of defending.