Most neutral observers question what, if anything, Musk has actually achieved in his four months in Washington. The $2 trillion he suggested could be cut from the near $7 trillion of government spending has been proved to be a delusion. The BBC's fact-checking people think only around $50 billion of the savings has actually been documented and even that wasn't in the waste, fraud, and abuse that Trump and Musk claim.
In fact, what Must has definitely NOT done is reduce waste that enables Congressionally approved spending to be delivered more efficiently and effectively. No, he's simply cut entire departments, quite a different thing and probably illegal and unconstitutional. One has to question how any sane observer thought 25-30% of US government spending went to waste, fraud, and abuse.
The answer perhaps is provided by The New York Times which marked the occasion by publishing an article about Musk and his drug use which according to the anti-Trump paper, is prodigious and far greater than previously known:
"Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it."
Musk was asked about the story while standing next to Trump in the Oval Office and responded by questioning the newspaper’s credibility before telling the reporter to “move on.” Cocaine was found in The White House under Biden so I'm pretty sure there is truth in the story and it's probably much worse than the NYT claim.
I suppose finding at least one drug-addled idiot in The White House shouldn't shock us as much as it should but with Trump and his clownish entourage it hardly rates as news. Most of them seem to be off their heads on something or other. What ought to shock is what Musk and his youthful DOGE staffers were allowed to do, firing thousands of hard-working civil servants, many of whom have had to be rehired or reinstated by the courts, pending a final ruling. Musk has now admitted that cutting waste was much harder than he imagined.
In another op-ed, the NYT suggests even the 'savings' Musk has claimed so far are simply illusory. According to work by the Partnership for Public Service, which studies the federal workforce, DOGE’s attacks on government personnel could cost the government upwards of $135 billion this fiscal year! And this is before taking into account the cost of defending DOGE’s actions in court in dozens of legal challenges.
One area where he has definitely reduced spending is in closing down USAID, America's foreign aid department which now exists inside the State Department as a shadow of what it once was. I have always personally supported foreign aid. It is a vital tool in spreading the soft power of the West to the most deprived areas of the world and I think Britain in particular owes it to nations that it invaded and colonised during the days of empire.
Today, it is even more important. If the huge international flows of migrants are to be halted, some of the most unstable, undemocratic, and impoverished places in the world have to be made more livable and decent. Overseas aid is the only way we can do it. Europe or the USA can't make themselves into fortresses behind whose walls we can watch in comfort as others suffer starvation and brutality. That is just not possible.
However, Musk's singular success is to cut $billions in US aid. Another NYT article is titled: Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death.
The administration admits that it's terminated more than 80% of USAID grants. Credible research by Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that the massive cuts have "already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year. That is what Musk’s foray into politics accomplished."
Imagine being the world's richest man with close to $400 billion in total wealth and using the power and influence that brings to cut access to food, clean water, and medicines for some of the poorest people on the planet who have virtually nothing and through no fault of their own, are starving to death or dying from easily preventable diseases. What kind of person does that?
It's hard to know if he is driven to it by drugs or if he needs drugs to be able to live with himself while doing it.
Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate built libraries and promoted education and peace initiatives, giving away 90% of his wealth worth about $7 billion today. Bill Gates of Microsoft has already donated $100 billion to good causes and plans another $200 billion over the next 20 years in the battle against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The degenerate Musk on the other hand simply wants to accumulate more and more wealth on his way to becoming the first trillionaire.
