On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by executive order to scrutinize and implement cost-cutting measures in the Federal government. Elon Musk was assigned by President Trump to co-lead DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy.
Mr. Musk obtained U.S. citizenship in 2002, according to a recent 2023 biography. In the past, Musk was politically a reliable Democratic supporter. He supported Barack Obama’s runs in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton’s run in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. However, it is reported that he was a registered independent voter when he lived in California prior to moving to Texas. (I like this fact since I am registered as non-affiliated here in Colorado.)
Musk became unhappy with President Biden’s and Democrat party’s progressive positions on many issues. As such, he began looking for alternative candidates and initially supported Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination in the runup to the 2024 election. Eventually, he supported Donald Trump as Trump’s views were more aligned with his than those of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Elon Musk contributed approximately $288 million towards the election of Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. In recent days, Democratic leaders have been accusing Musk of “buying” the election for Donald Trump with the $288 million with the intent of completely transforming the U.S. government. They claim that Musk was not “elected” and therefore he is usurping the democratic process.
I find this accusation slightly amusing as for the last four years nobody knew who was actually running the U.S. Government since the person we elected (Joe Biden) was clearly not. I would point out to those yelling at these rallies that neither the White House staff nor Dr. Jill Biden was on the 2020 Presidential ballot and therefore has been usurping the will of the American people for the last four years using this logic.
However, getting back to DOGE and the $288 million that Elon Musk personally spent on the 2024 elections, I would remind the Democrats that it is reported Mark Zuckerberg spent over $400 million to get Biden elected in 2020. Musk only spent 72% of what Mark Zuckerberg did in 2020 to obtain the same outcome.
Given that the federal budget of 2024 (Oct 1, 2023 to Sept 20,2024) was approximately $6.75 trillion, 72% of that budget would change federal spending to $4.86 trillion. Given that the revenues for the same period were roughly $4.92 tillion, we would be able to balance a budget and possibly pay down some of our national debt.
Therfore, I think Elon has demonstrated that he is a great candidate to headup DOGE and to develop and implement President Trump’s cost-cutting procedures for the Federal Government.
(These numbers have NOT been adjusted for the 21.4% inflation during the Biden presidency.)