Salutes, Maga hats and mass layoffs: Elon Musk at Doge
In his 130 days as a special government employee, the world's richest man slashed his way through federal agencies, laying off government employees and gaining access to data that will underpin a dismantling of the federal government.
Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration is without modern precedent. Here's a look at some key moments in the brief tenure Musk had as a federal employee.
Musk is at Trump's side, as are a host of other tech billionaires, as he is inaugurated. He also issues an apparent fascist-style salute on stage at an inauguration celebration, twice.
The president issues an executive order that creates Musk's 'department of government efficiency' by renaming the United States Digital Service agency, which previously handled governmental tech issues. Trump's order includes only a vague mandate to modernize government technology and increase efficiency, but within days it becomes clear Musk and his team have far more expansive aims.
Musk and Doge pop up at the offices of numerous government agencies, starting with the General Services Administration, to question federal employees and start gathering data and access to government systems.
Doge's early days make headlines for targeting masses of government workers with layoffs and pushing others to resign, with more than 2 million employees receiving an email titled 'Fork in the road' that encourages staffers to take a buyout. The emails, which ask, 'What did you accomplish this week?' become a signature of Musk and his new bureau, sent again and again whenever staff began to prey on a new herd of government employees.
As Doge staffers storm into the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in early February, they find themselves in a heated standoff with security officials who try to bar them from accessing a secure room which holds sensitive and confidential data. The confrontation ends with USAID's top security official being put on administrative leave, while Doge gains access to its systems. With no one to stop them, Doge staffers begin the process of hollowing out the agency that had once been the world's largest single supplier of humanitarian aid. More than 5,600 USAID workers around the world are fired in the ensuing weeks.
'We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,' Musk boasts days later on X, his social media platform.
Musk tells a rightwing influencer on X that the GSA's 18F office, which helped build software projects such as the IRS's free tax filing service, was 'deleted' in response to an inaccurate post accusing the group of being radical leftists.
'We do need to delete entire agencies,' Musk tells attenders at a World Governments Summit in Dubai. 'If we don't remove the roots of the weed, then it's easy for the weed to grow back.'
The Trump administration orders agencies to fire thousands of probationary workers – a designation that applies to employees who have been at their jobs for less than a year, including those who may have been recently promoted. Other workers soon receive an email from Doge that demand they list five things they did last week or face termination, a chaotic request that also turns out to be an empty threat. Cabinet officials privately deem it nonsensical.
A 'Tesla takedown' protest movement and boycott starts taking off, targeting Musk's car company with protests at dealerships. A protest on this date in New York City at a showroom has a solid turnout.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Musk stands on stage in a black Maga hat, sunglasses and gold chain, gleefully wielding a chainsaw that was gifted to him by Javier Milei, the rightwing Argentinian president.
'This chainsaw is for bureaucracy!' he says. 'I am become meme.'
In the middle of the night, workers at 18F are notified that they will be laid off en masse.
Court cases filed earlier in Trump's term begin producing rulings that curtail Doge's layoffs and temporarily block its access to data. Judges rule that the Trump administration needs to reinstate probationary workers they fired, limit some Doge access to databases at agencies such as the Social Security Administration, and order Musk's team to turn over internal records it had been seeking to keep private.
The Department of Health and Human Services announces it is cutting 10,000 jobs to align with Trump's executive order on Doge. In a display of the chaos that Doge had inspired, the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, weeks later admits about 2,000 of those workers were fired in error and would need to be reinstated.
The Tesla protests are working – stocks are falling. In response, Trump appears on the White House driveway in front of several parked Teslas, telling reporters he is going to buy one of them and praising Musk as a 'patriot'. Others in Trump's orbit, including the Fox News host Sean Hannity, also post sales pitches for the automaker.
Musk's reaction to court rulings against Trump is a constant stream of attacks against the judicial system on X, which include demands that lawmakers 'impeach the judges' and claims there is a 'judicial coup' under way against Trump. Musk repeatedly amplifies far-right influencers saying the US should emulate El Salvador's strongman president, Nayib Bukele, whose party ousted supreme court judges in 2021 in a slide toward authoritarianism.
A fully fledged international protest movement against Tesla and Musk is building. Thousands of people gather at showrooms from Sydney to San Francisco in a day of action, with organizers stating that 'hurting Tesla is stopping Musk'. Vandalism against Tesla dealerships, charging stations and cars also intensifies around the world, including multiple molotov cocktail attacks and incidents of arson.
Trump and Musk call the attacks domestic terrorism, while Pam Bondi, the attorney general, vows to crack down on anyone targeting Tesla.
Musk poured money into a Wisconsin supreme court race that would have tilted the swing state's high court toward conservatives. He and his groups spent more than $20m on this race, including a giveaway of $1m checks on stage. Susan Crawford, the Democrat, wins the race handily, showing Musk's money couldn't buy everything.
A first-quarter earnings call reveals Tesla's performance was even worse than expectations, with a 71% drop in profits and 9% drop in revenue year over year. Musk announces he will spend significantly less time working on Doge starting some time in May.
In a cabinet meeting, Musk puts on two literal hats – a 'dark Maga' hat covered by a 'Gulf of America' hat. After Trump compliments the double-caps, Musk jokes: 'They say I wear a lot of hats'. This is potentially Musk's final cabinet meeting.
May finds a less vocal Musk than the aggressive tone he took the rest of the year, providing fuel for protests and lost revenue for Tesla.
As Congress debates Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' that would slash government services, Musk says he's 'disappointed' by the bill because it doesn't cut enough on domestic policy.
'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. But I don't know if it can be both,' he tells CBS.
Musk's time as a special government employee comes to an end, capping off the 130 days he is allowed to serve in this role.
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