100 days of DOGE: Elon Musk’s sweeping Trump administration role
Since President Trump returned to office 100 days ago, Elon Musk has amassed vast power — leading the administration’s efforts to shutter government agencies and slash the federal workforce.
Musk’s ruthless approach to leading the Department of Government Efficiency — epitomized by a speech in which the Tesla CEO brandished a chainsaw — has drawn lawsuits, pushback from federal workers and criticism from Tesla investors. But he’s also held onto broad support from Republican voters and, at least publicly, from Mr. Trump himself.
Musk gained influence — and spent heavily — in 2024 race
Musk — the world’s richest person — endorsed Mr. Trump minutes after the then-presidential candidate’s July 2024 assassination attempt. Musk had oscillated on backing Mr. Trump: The one-time Obama backer suggested Mr. Trump “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset” in 2022, and later supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s 2024 GOP primary bid.
The alliance between the two billionaires was defined by campaign cash. Musk spent more than $250 million supporting Mr. Trump and other GOP candidates in 2024, much of it through Musk’s America PAC. The group helped lead Mr. Trump’s get-out-the-vote efforts, and became known for using its massive war chest in unorthodox and often controversial ways. One plan to dole out $1 million a day to swing state voters who signed a petition drew a lawsuit from Philadelphia’s district attorney, who accused Musk’s super PAC of running an illegal lottery.
Mr. Trump floated a Musk-led “government efficiency commission” during the later months of the campaign. The scope of Musk’s role was initially unclear: In a post-election statement, Mr. Trump framed DOGE as an external body that would offer “advice and guidance,” a far more limited role than the one Musk took on.
Musk promises $2 trillion in cuts but slashes far less
In an October campaign rally, the billionaire predicted he could find at least $2 trillion in annual savings, which would require him to slash the budget by nearly 30% — a daunting goal considering that almost half of all government spending goes toward the military, Medicare and Social Security, three politically difficult-to-cut areas. Earlier this year, Musk cited a still-ambitious $1 trillion as his target.
So far, DOGE’s stated cost savings haven’t come close to the trillion-dollar mark. Musk said earlier this month he anticipates $150 billion in savings in the 2026 fiscal year by cutting waste and fraud. Meanwhile, the DOGE website says it has saved $160 billion through a combination of cancelling contracts and grants, selling assets and ferreting out fraud.
But many of the cost savings touted by DOGE have been called into question. DOGE keeps a running tally of spending cuts on its website, but this “wall of receipts” has included errors and unverified claims, including an $8 million cancelled contract that was erroneously listed at $8 billion, CBS News has previously reported.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields defended DOGE’s cost-cutting goals and called $1 trillion a year an achievable benchmark. He also said mistakes are rare and “corrected immediately,” and the statistics on DOGE’s site go through a “lengthy assessment and analysis.” The $8 billion mistake dates back to the prior administration, DOGE has argued.
“The goal is to cut as much waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government as possible,” Fields told CBS News. “The president is very happy and supportive of the achievements of DOGE, and knows that we are just now getting started.”
Some of Musk’s claims about the size of the government’s fraud problem are also difficult to prove. He told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow last month the government could save $500 billion to $700 billion by cutting fraud and waste from entitlement programs, but there’s little evidence that fraud exists on anywhere near that scale, which would equal 20% to 30% of all annual spending on Social Security and Medicare. The Government Accountability Office estimates the government loses $233 billion to $521 billion per year due to fraud. When asked about Musk’s $700 billion fraud estimates, Fields said “I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility.”
And DOGE’s efforts to slash the federal workforce could end up costing $135 billion due to paid leave and productivity costs, an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service estimates.
That estimate was dismissed by the White House. “The continued attempts to sow doubt in the massive accomplishments of this never-before-seen effort to make government more efficient speaks more about the illegitimacy of those peddling these falsehoods than good work of DOGE,” Fields told CBS News last week.
Thousands of federal workers cut since Trump and Musk’s “fork in the road”
When the Trump administration emailed millions of federal workers in January to offer months of pay in exchange for quitting their jobs, the message’s subject line — “Fork in the Road” — was identical to the one Musk used to coax staff into leaving Twitter after he bought the site.
Since then, Musk has played a central role in efforts to cut up to 10% of the civilian workforce.
The White House says 75,000 people took the “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation deal, which offered to pay employees until the end of September if they resigned from their positions by early February. As many as 200,000 workers were expected to participate. Tens of thousands of federal employees have also been laid off, including large numbers of probationary workers with less than one or two years of service.
The job cuts have hit across the federal government. DOGE staffers visited the Pentagon in February as the military plans to eliminate tens of thousands of civilian roles. The Social Security Administration has lost thousands of workers, and the Internal Revenue Service could cut its staff by 25% according to the Associated Press.
Health agencies have been hit by the administration’s cuts. The National Institutes of Health is expected to face steep budget cuts, a move former NIH Director Francis Collins warned could have dire consequences for public health in an interview with “60 Minutes.” The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has lost 10% of its staff, CBS News reported.
Some 1,000 National Park Service workers were laid off, raising fears about understaffing.
Fields told CBS News the Trump administration’s job cuts are designed to avoid any disruption to critical government services, but added: “To a bureaucracy that has gone untouched for decades, it’s going to be disruptive.”
In some cases, laid-off probationary workers have been rehired due to now-paused court orders that halted the job cuts, causing confusion. “We’re supposed to be OK. But one minute we’re in a good space, and the next minute we could just lose everything,” one rehired Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services staff member told CBS News.
Meanwhile, Musk has publicly blasted the federal workforce, claiming DOGE is on a mission to eliminate a “dictatorship of the bureaucracy” that’s hostile to Mr. Trump’s agenda.
In February, federal employees received an email with the subject line, “What did you do last week?” instructing them to reply with a list of five things they’d accomplished. Musk warned on X that any non-responses “will be taken as a resignation.” The move set off confusion, with some agencies telling workers not to respond. Musk later called the emails a “pulse check” designed to root out dead or nonexistent people that he claims are collecting paychecks.
DOGE tries to shut down agencies: USAID, CFPB and more
Even if DOGE’s cuts could fall short of Musk’s goals, its influence has been sweeping.
Within days of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, DOGE began touting cancelled contracts, and its staff became embedded in scores of departments. Musk told Fox Business last month his team of over 100 people was in “pretty much” every agency. Many of the funding cuts have been abrupt, and Musk has admitted DOGE has made mistakes in its rapid push to slash spending.
In some cases, Musk’s team has participated in the near-dismantling of federal agencies. The gambit has often begun with DOGE staffers accessing an agency’s offices — in some cases clashing with employees — followed by mass job cuts.
The U.S. Agency for International Development, a foreign aid agency that Musk described as a “criminal organization” awash with fraud, was one of his earliest targets. Two USAID security officials were put on leave for trying to stop DOGE staffers from accessing internal systems (a Trump administration spokesperson said at the time classified information wasn’t accessed without security clearances). The Trump administration later placed many of USAID’s staff on leave, halted foreign aid programs and began absorbing what remained of USAID into the State Department.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has also drawn Musk’s ire. In early February, DOGE personnel entered the financial regulator’s office and “camped out in the basement,” a former agency staffer told CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” Hours later, Musk posted on X, “CFPB RIP.” The administration has tried to lay off 90% of CFPB staff and halt the agency’s work, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked those moves.
DOGE’s efforts at the U.S. Institute of Peace triggered a legal standoff, with several fired board members suing the administration and accusing DOGE personnel of engaging in a “literal trespass and takeover by force” at the agency’s headquarters. The White House defended cuts to the organization at the time, telling CBS News, “Taxpayers don’t want to spend $50 million per year on a publicly-funded ‘research institute’ that has failed to deliver peace.”
Musk accesses federal data
Personnel at DOGE gained access to the Treasury Department’s internal payment system in the first few weeks of Mr. Trump’s term, which Musk cast as a way to catch fraud. The move prompted concern from Democrats due to the sensitive personal data handled by the system and the possibility that DOGE could try to cut off spending authorized by Congress. The Trump administration said at the time Musk’s team has “read-only” access.
In mid-February, a staffer linked to DOGE also sought access to the Internal Revenue Service’s taxpayer data system, drawing criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration is planning a “basic anti-fraud review to ensure that people are not engaging in large scale theft of federal taxpayer benefits.”
Musk has scrutinized the Social Security Administration, which he claims is rife with fraud, suggesting tens of millions of dead people are receiving payments and immigrants are abusing the system en masse, though he’s never offered any evidence for either of these assertions. He’s described Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme,” though both Musk and Mr. Trump have said they would not cut benefits. At one point earlier this year, the SSA considered requiring Social Security recipients to verify their identities in person instead of over the phone, but the agency reversed course after seniors and their advocates objected.
Musk clashes with Democrats, courts — and even Trump allies
Musk’s rise to power has drawn outrage from Democrats, who argue DOGE has unilaterally slashed spending appropriated by Congress. Most Republican lawmakers defended DOGE, though some have raised concerns about sweeping cuts to public health agencies and programs important to their districts.
Public opinion on Musk is similarly divided. Some 52% of Americans said in late February Musk and DOGE had too much influence over federal worker firing decisions, including 81% of Democrats and 57% of independents but just 21% of Republicans, according to a CBS News poll with a margin of error of 2.5 points.
Musk has occasionally clashed with other Trump loyalists. His pick for interim IRS leader — Hunter Biden whistleblower Gary Shapley — left the role after just 48 hours, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent privately complained to Mr. Trump. And Musk publicly feuded with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro over tariffs, calling him “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
DOGE’s aggressive moves have also drawn lawsuits arguing the agency has exceeded its authority. At various points, judges have halted DOGE’s efforts to lay off workers and access the Treasury payment system, though in many cases, those rulings were stayed.
Some legal challenges have zeroed in on Musk’s official status in the administration. The White House says Musk is a “special government employee,” which allows him to serve for up to 130 days in a single yearlong period. The administration has argued in court papers that Musk isn’t officially DOGE’s administrator and “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.”
DOGE clashes with Musk’s business interests
Musk’s business empire benefits heavily from federal programs. Tesla sells billions of dollars a year in credits to automakers that fall short of federal emission rules, and its cars are subsidized by tax incentives for electric vehicles — though Mr. Trump has called for a rollback of electric car subsidies. Mr. Trump has also offered his public endorsement, promising to buy a Tesla in a White House event. Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has valuable contracts with NASA, and its satellite internet division Starlink could take over a contract to modernize the air traffic control system, the Associated Press reports.
Musk has pushed back on conflict-of-interest concerns, saying in an Oval Office appearance with Mr. Trump, “all of our actions are maximally transparent.”
But DOGE has caused agita for Tesla investors, some of whom fear Musk is too distracted to run the company or his polarizing image could hurt the carmaker’s brand. The company’s sales and profits have fallen over the past year, and its share price is down nearly 25% from early January, prompting some investors to urge him to step back from the Trump administration.
Musk said on a Tesla earnings call last week his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly” in May. But he added that he’ll remain involved for the rest of Mr. Trump’s term.
There’s no indication DOGE or Musk’s work at the White House will end next month. “Elon Musk will still be a common face here,” Fields said.
