What is the next step for Doge after Elon Musk said he was leaving? : NPR

Elon Musk leaves her role as masterpiece behind the government's initiative of the government on Friday after having faced legal setbacks, clashes with members of the cabinet and with little evidence to support the allegations of savings or efficiency of the government.

Friday afternoon, Musk joined President Trump for a last press conference in the Oval Office, capping a 130-day mandate which also saw Musk face increasing beaming figures, financial stress on his commercial empire and a gap between the richest man in the world and his most powerful political leader.

The president, seemingly reading the notes of a binder, has praised Musk's work as “one of the greatest business leaders and innovative that the world has ever produced”.

“He advanced to put his very great talents at the service of our nation, and we appreciate it,” said Trump, before giving Musk a ceremonial key. “And I just want to say that Elon worked tirelessly, helping to direct the most radical and consecutive government reform program.”

Framing his departure as the end of his “scheduled time” As an employee of the special government, the federal government’s departure from Musk will probably not do much to change Doge's work by carrying out Trump's vision to reduce federal bureaucracy and to serve it from people and programs with whom the president does not agree.

Its role at the White House was nebulous and confusing. While Trump and others praised Musk as the chief of Doge's restructuring efforts, government lawyers insisted that the billionaire has no legal authority and minimized his efforts.

This week, a federal judge granted a case contesting the authority of Musk and Doge in the federal government to continue, and several others are still in the process.

But many Musk allies are anchored in federal agencies as a full -time employee, such as a group of young staff -based members based in the Doge's scope beyond executive power – in some cases, trying to integrate into entities of non -governmental and non -executive branches.

Other prosecution has focused on a DOGE area was very successful: to raise sensitive government data and combine it in massive databases. Several federal judges have raised concerns about access to DOGE data and what they plan to do with it. In some cases, it seems that Doge and Trump administration use data for the purposes of applying immigration.

Musk's golden chainsaw lost teeth

Before joining the second Trump administration, Musk had a high goal of reducing 2 dollars of the federal budget. Earlier this year, Musk went on stage at the conservative political action conference, brandishing a chainsaw to illustrate its pressure to reduce expenses. But his target number was revised downwards several times, finally landing about $ 150 billion he affirmed would be saved at the end of the fiscal year in September.

The NPR reports have repeatedly noted the claims of the savings of DOGE to be overestimated, inaccurate and rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the functioning of the federal budget.

This week, Musk expressed his dissatisfaction with the so-called “large and beautiful” big bill “of priorities that adopted the house. In a Interview with CBSHe said that the planned addition of the measurement and debt “undermines the work that the DOGE team does”. Beyond the budget, some of the other Doge Signature efforts have been reversed or retained by the courts, such as the thrust to dismiss federal workers and nearby agencies. Some of the proceedings have used Musk's public statements and social media publications to say that these changes have violated the law.

Musk's push for a mandate that federal employees should send short emails listing the weekly achievements have been canceled by certain cabinet heads and was one of the several ways in which his background in Silicon Valley clashed with the Washington tracks.

NPR reports and other points of sale have shown many examples of changes led by Doge which probably made the government less effective. This includes things like: the elimination of a technological unit inside the GSA which helped improve digital services between agencies; Encourage a push back to the office with office shortages, internet access and even hygienic paper; Expenditure is freezing for government payment cards that have disrupted workers' ability to buy basic supplies and more.

What is the next step for Musk?

The special designation of government employees gives Musk an exit from the government that elected politicians do not have easily. Musk will return to its multiple companies at a time when its commercial empire has experienced financial setbacks, especially at Tesla, its main source of wealth.

While the Doge Work of Musk accelerates, the owners of Tesla sold their cars, the windows were vandalized and that the profits have dropped while certain reports suggest that the automaker's card sought to replace Musk.

Musk has already pivoted its prolific publication on its social media site X in Tesla, Spacex and Starlink – but not before advertise From the federal government, promising, Doge would only strengthen “because it becomes a way of life throughout the government”.

And after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to support Trump's re -election and an unsuccessful thrust to influence a breed of the Supreme Court of the Wisconsin State, Musk announced last week that he would slow down his political expenses.

“I'm going to do much less in the future,” he said in a video interview with Bloomberg News in Qatar Economic Forum. “I think I did enough.”

Bobby Alllyn of NPR has contributed the reports.

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