To call Musk's tenure as president of Washington controversial would be an understatement. As a man accustomed to getting what he wants and acting like a powerful executive, he swept through Washington with a figurative chainsaw, slashing budgets, laying off workers and making audacious power grabs. Musk's brash behavior angered government officials and alienated potential allieslike Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Eventually the animosity came to a head and Musk suffered a minor seizure. physical altercation with Finance Minister Scott Bessent.
Politician details the stunning consequences. By the end of May DOJ Musk has fallen out of favor with President Trump, and White House aides have begun to push back more forcefully against the fledgling government agency. When the White House officially said goodbye to Musk May 30it also pushed out his right hand Steve Davis.
But Davis, an engineer who has worked closely with Musk for more than 20 years, including at DOGE, simply refused to leave. He stepped in to try to take the reins into his own hands, but this did not sit well with many of the remaining DOGE employees. But others remained loyal, essentially splitting the department in two.
When those who disliked Davis' leadership, given that he was no longer a government employee, attempted to plan DOGE's future without him, Davis accused them of staging a coup. The White House quickly rooted out his supporters, ending Davis' brief attempt to consolidate control in less than two weeks.
What followed was a series of restructurings, changes in leadership, and the eventual end of DOGE as a centralized organization. When Reuters Earlier this month, when he asked the White House about the status of DOGE, he was told that “it does not exist.”
Musk came to Washington with big ambitions to cut government spending by trillions of dollars. Instead, during his short stay in Washington, government spending actually increasedand he left behind many burned bridges.
