He came to Washington wielding a chainsaw – both metaphorically and politically. Elon Musk, multi-entrepreneur, billionaire, and self-declared government reformer, entered the political stage with the swagger of a man who believes everything can be solved – with money, with speed, with code. His mission: to make the state apparatus efficient, to dismantle the establishment, to save America from financial ruin. That, at least, was the narrative with which Donald Trump installed him in the White House. But the reality Musk now leaves behind looks very different: a field of wreckage, riddled with empty promises, inflated savings targets – and a deeply shaken bureaucracy.
Trump saw in him not only a close confidant but above all a massive campaign donor. “A smart guy,” he said, “who really loves this country.” And so Elon Musk became not just an advisor but a shadow president – wearing a black MAGA cap, with his own office, with his kids in the Oval Office, with nights in the Lincoln Bedroom. He flew on Air Force One, slept in the White House, directed cabinet meetings in a t-shirt. Musk was omnipresent – and stylistically utterly unpredictable.
He promised that with his newly created “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), he would halve federal spending – at minimum. He aimed to cut two trillion dollars. On the campaign trail, he spoke of “catastrophic government failure,” of agencies that should be thrown out like obsolete devices. He promised transparency and disruption – and acted like a CEO who faces no dissent. But reality had its own rules.
The Chainsaw Sound of Government
Musk had software engineers infiltrate sensitive systems, pressured civil servants, fired thousands, shut down departments, and disregarded protocol. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? “RIP ☠️,” he wrote. USAID, the backbone of American foreign aid? “Spent the weekend feeding USAID into a wood chipper.” And when journalists confronted him with the consequences – starving children, halted aid deliveries, global emergency calls – Musk replied, “No one has died.”
What sounded like a bad joke was bitterly real. The United States had handed itself over to a man who saw the government as faulty code to be deleted. And Trump let him run wild. Inside the administration, directives circulated that might have come from a start-up: every employee was to report five completed tasks each week – “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” That such a style was foreign to the public service did not concern anyone. People were fired, then rehired, then fired again. The FDA had to rehire lab personnel, travel planners, and administrative staff because entire divisions had ground to a halt.
“It was hard. My job is to make sure we can heal from that,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary soberly – as if speaking of a collective trauma.
And Then There Was the Fun
Meanwhile, Musk used the White House like a playground: he displayed Teslas in the driveway, installed a gaming screen in his office, and had caramel ice cream brought from the kitchen. “This stuff’s amazing,” he gushed. “I ate a whole tub of it.” And when Trump asked if he wanted to stay the night, he simply said yes.
His summary? Musk put it this way:
“It is funny that we’ve got DOGE now.”
(A reference to the meme with the Japanese Shiba Inu dog – and at the same time the name of his agency.)
A Multi-Billion Dollar Disaster in Numbers
What’s left of his savings agenda? Originally, Musk wanted to cut two trillion dollars. In January, he said, “Maybe we’ll manage one trillion.” By April: “150 billion would be great.” Even that number is questionable – DOGE regularly manipulated figures, exaggerated savings, failed to provide verifiable evidence.
For comparison: Bill Clinton, with his reform agenda, managed inflation-adjusted savings of about 240 billion dollars – over years, with a concept, with a plan. Elaine Kamarck, a key figure in that initiative, said in hindsight:
“We went about it methodically – department by department.”
Musk, on the other hand, according to Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian Cato Institute, set out without understanding government mechanics, without patience, without strategy:
“They made changes without knowing how the government works. A lot of unforced errors.”
And his conclusion:
“They set themselves up for failure from the start.”
The Show Goes On – Or Maybe Not
Trump announced a joint press conference: “This is his last day – but not really, because Elon will always be with us.” One can assume the show will go on. But the government is weakened, the administration humiliated, trust shattered.
And Elon Musk? He moves on – with ice cream in tow and a chainsaw in his hand.
English 
German 
