Behind Trump’s Imperial Presidency (and Elon), There’s Russell Vought
People may celebrate Musk’s return to Tesla. It won’t matter. Not only have they done the heavy lifting of installing teams and getting them up to speed on the mechanics of government, Russell Vought may be the real brain-trust here.
‘But the following day, it became clear to Farman that her adversary wasn’t Musk, or any engineers who might have doused themselves with Axe’s unique eau de middle school. She was really up against Russell Vought, the Trump loyalist who’d just been named director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as well as acting director of the CFPB. Farman hadn’t heard of Vought before he became CFPB director, which is pretty much how Vought likes it. A self-described “boring budget guy,” he’s best known for co-authoring the 900-page policy playbook of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which has become something of a bible for Trump’s second term. Vought’s think tank, the Center for Renewing America, has produced numerous policy papers that advocate for such Trump fixations as the annexation of Greenland (“a prudent aim,” according to a CRA paper) and enacting broad tariffs (“just as sometimes a nation must go to war with guns and bombs, so sometimes are trade wars necessary”), among others. At the center of Vought’s ideology is the unitary executive theory, which critics say amounts to an argument that Trump should have wide latitude to do whatever he wants.’
Musk says time commitment to DOGE will 'drop significantly' as focus returns to Tesla
Musk was always going to have cut back on time spent on DOGE given that he is time-limited by law to 130 days within any 365-day period. The focus was on putting teams in place and training them on how government actually works in practice.
‘Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will begin dedicating more time to Tesla and less to his work with the Trump administration starting next month, providing a relief to Tesla investors fed up with his political work and signaling a possible shift in power at the White House.
‘Musk's comments came on Tesla's call with investors following the company reporting a sizable drop in first-quarter profit and revenue. The company warned that the political environment along with the Trump administration's tariff plans were challenges for its business.’
What Elon Musk Didn’t Budget For: Firing Workers Costs Money, Too
A non-profit that “is building a better government and a stronger democracy” and proselytizes for public servants not only questions the reported DOGE savings but argues that they should be considered on a net basis, i.e., after deducting transitional costs and other persistent drags like reductions.
The transition costs are one-off; the cost savings persist (at least in theory), though.
‘The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies the federal work force, has used budget figures to produce a rough estimate that firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year. At the Internal Revenue Service, a DOGE-driven exodus of 22,000 employees would cost about $8.5 billion in revenue in 2026 alone, according to figures from the Budget Lab at Yale University. The total number of departures is expected to be as many as 32,000.
‘Neither of these estimates includes the cost to taxpayers of defending DOGE’s moves in court. Of about 200 lawsuits and appeals related to Mr. Trump’s agenda, at least 30 implicate the department.’
How DOGE Plans to Plow Ahead Without Musk at the Helm
Musk’s departure may also signal the pivot to deregulation from cost-cutting.
‘As Musk prepares to step aside, DOGE’s work is likely to shift from job cutting to regulation cutting, according to a Feb. 19 executive order that instructed agency leaders to begin rescinding “unlawful regulations” in coordination with DOGE.
‘Agencies must report regulations they deem unconstitutional and that impose “significant costs upon private parties” that aren’t outweighed by public benefits, among other things. Agencies were also told to “deprioritize” enforcement of regulations “based on anything other than the best reading of a statute.”’
How much has Elon Musk's Doge cut from US government spending?
BBC also joins the ranks of skeptics on DOGE progress.
‘Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - set up to cut US government spending - claims to have saved, on average, more than $10bn a week since President Trump entered office.
‘"We're talking about almost $200bn and rising fast," Trump told the BBC when talking about Mr Musk's cost-cutting drive on 23 April.
‘Doge's website says it is focusing on cancelling contracts, grants and leases put in place by previous administrations, as well as tackling fraud and reducing the government workforce.
‘BBC Verify has looked at the agency's biggest claimed savings, examining the figures and speaking to experts.
‘Our analysis found that behind some of the large numbers, there is a lack of evidence to back them up.’
DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data
To be clear, the federal government’s cybersecurity and data protections were never that good. Just look at the recent OCC hack for starters, let alone the allegations about Social Security.
Give me a break.
‘As DOGE bulldozes through technological systems, firewalls between government agencies are collapsing and the floodgates are open for data-sharing disasters that will affect everyone. For example, the decision to give Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to IRS data and to databases of unaccompanied minors creates immediate dangers for immigrants, regardless of their legal status. And it threatens everyone else, albeit perhaps less imminently, as every American’s Social Security number, tax returns, benefits, and health-care records are agglomerated into one massive, poorly secured data pool.
‘That’s not just speculation. We’ve already seen how data breaches at companies like Equifax can expose the sensitive information of hundreds of millions of people. Now imagine those same risks with all your government data, managed by a small crew of DOGE workers without a hint of institutional knowledge between them.‘