MW 'DOGE' cuts are in doubt as Trump shows Musk the door in cabinet-meeting sendoff

By Chris Matthews

'Musk is pretty much at the end of his political utility,' said Pangea Policy founder Terry Haines

President Donald Trump fueled more speculation Wednesday that Elon Musk's influence on the administration has already peaked, after he thanked Musk at a cabinet meeting for his time in the administration but said that "at some point he wants to get back home to his cars."

The administration has pushed back on the idea that Musk is leaving the Trump White House or that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency effort is winding down.

"Elon's not going anywhere, and 'DOGE' isn't going anywhere," a White House official told MarketWatch last week, after Musk told investors on a Tesla $(TSLA)$ earnings call that he will "significantly" reduce the time spent on government issues starting in May.

But more signs of Musk's waning influence have surfaced in recent days.

Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, told the New York Post that Musk is no longer physically working from the White House, as had been the case for much of the administration's first 100 days.

"Instead of meeting with him in person, I'm talking to him on the phone, but it's the same net effect," Wiles said. Musk, she said, "hasn't been here physically, but it really doesn't matter much."

Musk claimed at the meeting Wednesday that "DOGE" has already cut $160 billion from federal spending, but it's unclear that the figure is accurate.

Real-time data on federal spending show that it's running ahead of the pace set last year, and some experts contend that after accounting for severance costs for fired federal employees, the "DOGE" effort has actually increased the deficit.

"Not only is Musk vastly overinflating the money he has saved, [but] he is not accounting for the exponentially larger waste that he is creating," Max Stier, the chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, was quoted as having told the New York Times last week. "He's inflicted these costs on the American people, who will pay them for many years to come."

Meanwhile, the effort in Congress to codify some of Musk's cuts has run aground. The White House reportedly requested that Congress formalize just $9.3 billion in cuts identified by "DOGE," mostly in the areas of foreign aid and public broadcasting.

Politico reported Wednesday that the White House has yet to send over the request to rescind this funding but that "there are already warning signs on the horizon" that Republicans won't be able to muster the votes for even these modest cuts.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate Republican, told the publication that she's "not eager" for the White House to send the request given the work Congress is already doing on Trump's tax package.

Terry Haines, founder of Pangea Policy, told MarketWatch that momentum in the "DOGE" effort has long been slowed, as Republicans in both the administration and Congress began to feel political blowback for the project's aggressive cost cutting.

"It's been two months since it was a serious idea that 'DOGE' would achieve anything close to the $2 trillion it cuts they said they'd like to achieve," Haines said. "Musk is pretty much at the end of his political utility, so this is a friendly way to show him the door."

-Chris Matthews

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April 30, 2025 15:40 ET (19:40 GMT)

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