With sunglasses, a Trumpist cap and posed like a rock star, Elon Musk I was so ecstatic that I couldn’t hide it. On center stage at CPAC, the great conservative summit of USAthere were he and the chainsaw “against the bureaucracy“that the president of Argentina, Javier Mileyhe had just handed over to him with the bowing gesture of a fan. The brutal image not only stole some prominence from Donald Trumpalso illustrated a disheartening purpose for public administration: the richest man in history was in charge of the dismemberment of the Government of the first world power.
On January 20, 2025, one year ago today, Trump signed an executive order to create the so-called evil Department of Government Efficiency (DOGEfor its acronym in English), an initiative promoted by Musk and the Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy with the aim of “modernizing the technology and the software to maximize government efficiency and productivity.” This was a euphemism for promoting clippings in multimillion-dollar contracts, the cancellation of programs with thousands of subsidies and the dismissal of tens of thousands of public employees. The destruction of the administrative State.
Musk and his team—which included engineers between the ages of 19 and 24, some with dubious backgrounds—used a unit that cuts across all branches of the executive branch to penetrate the administration and gain direct access to U.S. government computer systems as sensitive as those of the US government. cybersecurity or the code that controls tax returns. This maneuver was silently activated when Joe Biden He was still president. Potentially illegally, DOGE took control of data on personnel, contracts and public computers to launch a radical transformation of the bureaucracy in USA that is consolidating the concentration of power in the executive branch.
Lies and lack of transparency
Musk promised that he would reduce the federal spending by a trillion dollars before October. As usual, his promises were smoke. Not only did it not manage to reach that figure, clearly excessive, but spending has increased. Although the group claims to have carried out more than 29,000 cuts from the federal government, an analysis of The New York Times has uncovered that up to 28 of the 40 largest cancellations of contracts and subsidies announced are incorrect.
Musk also promised that DOGE would be “the most transparent government organization in history” and touted that the technology would allow you to trim accurately. However, reality has contradicted him again. He Supreme Court — with a Republican majority — has blocked court orders that required publishing its operations. This protection has allowed the group to maneuver with opacity to mix some real cuts with false data – much more common and exaggerated in amount -, a lack of progress in their mission that, according to The New York Timeshas been “obscured by errors, omissions and indecipherable accounting that few private companies would accept.”
Real impact beyond the US
To this day, the actual impact of DOGE remains a mystery. The group would have eliminated about 300,000 public jobs in 2025. That purge It was used by firing probationary workers, expelling those who refused to detail their activity, or through an incentive package for voluntary resignation that was apparently offered to some 75,000 people. Hundreds of them have been offered reinstatement. Musk has assessed the project as “somewhat successful.”
However, the fact that he has not met these objectives does not mean that Musk’s actions are not altering institutions and, with them, the democracy in the USA. As research by Reuters and WiredDOGE has used IA to spy on officials critical of Trump and has promoted the creation of a database master to track and chase the migrant population. Beyond the US, the closure of USAIDthe US humanitarian aid agency besieged by DOGE, could have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world, according to one count.
When Musk left the agency at the end of May shortly before an explosive divorce with Trump—Ramaswamy did not even participate in its activity due to internal disputes—it continued to operate even further in the shadows. Although his contract is until next July 24, the Trump Administration currently insists that DOGE “does not exist.” Its website has not been updated since last October 4. And the cuts seem to have ended. However, government sources warn that DOGE has been transformed and that its members remain within the Government “like ticks.” Their scorched earth practices are already the norm in the White House.
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