Elon Musk had some relatable thoughts on the new “department” of government efficiency he’s been tasked to head with Vivek Ramaswamy. “I still can’t believe DOGE is real,” he wrote on his social media platform X on Sunday night, followed by that emoji where the face is crying from laughter. After Musk powered Donald Trump’s return to the White House, pouring an estimated $200 million into his campaign, the president-elect announced he and Ramaswamy would lead an outside advisory panel aiming to slash $2 trillion in government spending—a plan that even conservative economists have called a “fantasy.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Fla.) will lead a new House Oversight Committee working with the DOGE panel—an appointment that some of Taylor Greene’s fellow lawmakers have likened to a punishment, not a reward—and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is forming a DOGE Senate Caucus. Critics have pointed out that DOGE has no budget, no offices, no personnel and no long-term mandate, but Musk doesn’t seem to care. “I think it’s actually going to work,” he wrote on X.
