Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has been dubbed a complete failure by a former GOP analyst.
The Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson joked Donald Trump is "sick of winning" and pointed out the shortcomings of Musk's DOGE project. The Tesla CEO had been tasked with cutting government spending and promised the department would be closed within the first two years of the presidency.
DOGE has since been shut eight months short of its expiry date, but not because of its successes in cutting expenditure, according to Wilson, who appeared on Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast.
"I was told that DOGE was going to create trillions and trillions of dollars in cuts from wasteful government spending and as it turns out it was a net negative," Wilson said. "It created more costs than it saved. It was, from the very start, Muskian bulls**t."
Wilson went on to suggest Musk's strategy was more about cutting what he did not like in government rather than actively pursuing government spending oversights.
Musk's strategy according to Wilson was, "an aesthetic dislike of X, anything that's woke, and because of his hatred of the woke he wanted to slash things that included words like 'justice, equity, climate, bias,' the usual things that trigger the MAGA."
The government has since confirmed DOGE is no longer operating, with its key players shifted to different parts of government. Speaking to Reuters, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor confirmed the department no longer exists.
He said, "That doesn't exist. There is no target around reductions." Kupor would go on to say it's no longer a "centralized entity" in the administration. DOGE did not provide any details of what they had cut, when they had cut it, or how much they had effectively saved but did claim to have cut government expenditure down by tens of billions of dollars.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told Reuters, "President Trump was given a clear mandate to reduce waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government, and he continues to actively deliver on that commitment."
Under Musk's leadership of DOGE, tens of thousands of federal employees were fired, though hundreds were offered their jobs back in September.
According to The Daily Beast, the General Services Administration was cut so heavily they had to call on ex-employees to return to work as they were left "broken and understaffed".
