To appreciate just how shambolic Elon Musk and the DOGE operation are, consider the absurd “five things” email.
After the White House told a federal judge that Musk has no legal or governmental authority, Donald Trump declared that he wanted his top campaign donor to “get more aggressive.” Hours later, the billionaire issued an ultimatum to federal employees, followed by an email from the Office of Personnel Management, that asked workers to summarize their accomplishments from last week in five bullet points.
Some Trump-led agencies told their employees to ignore the message, some Trump-led agencies told their employees to respond, and some did a little of both.
Days later, the president himself told the public that the emails are “somewhat voluntary,” though the Republican quickly added, “[I]f you don’t answer I guess you get fired.”
That ought to clear things up.
It’s reached the point that even several congressional Republicans, under pressure from concerned constituents, are starting to voice public criticisms of the Department of Government Efficiency, its ostensible leader and its increasingly radical tactics.
If that weren’t quite enough, DOGE, already facing allegations that it’s produced false data, is offering critics fresh rhetorical ammunition and reasons to question its competence. In fact, The New York Times highlighted a series of DOGE boasts, published to a “wall of receipts” posted by Musk’s team, that “contained mistakes that vastly inflated the amount of money saved.” That coincided with an Associated Press report that found, “Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that the Trump administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren’t expected to save the government any money.”
The quasi-governmental agency is now facing an avalanche of questions, including a basic one: Who, exactly, is overseeing this increasingly chaotic and misguided operation?
The official line was that Musk, of course, was leading DOGE. Then the White House changed its mind. Then Trump seemed to contradict his own team. Then reporters asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to name DOGE’s administrator, prompting the president’s chief spokesperson to say that Musk is “overseeing” DOGE but that she would not reveal the name of the DOGE administrator “from this podium.” A day earlier in a federal courtroom, White House lawyers also said they could not identify the department’s administrator. Eventually, however, Team Trump came up with an answer — though it wasn’t an altogether satisfying one. NBC News reported: [O]n Tuesday afternoon, the White House revealed that a little-known official, Amy Gleason, now holds the title of acting DOGE administrator — a job that implies she heads up the agency. The White House didn’t say when Gleason was appointed, but the decision appeared rushed; she was scheduled to be on vacation Tuesday in Mexico, The New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.
So let’s review: DOGE is a highly controversial and unpopular operation, operating largely in secret, making damaging decisions and facing bipartisan pushback as it stumbles through a series of avoidable mistakes. DOGE is also “overseen” by the president’s campaign donor, though he apparently isn’t its administrator, and the White House has made no real effort to explain the difference. Taken together, this is, by any fair measure, a fiasco for the ages.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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