Americans aren't enthusiastic about Elon Musk and DOGE. But President Donald Trump wants him to keep going.
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As his own poll numbers are headed south, and amid growing signs that Americans are not happy with Elon Musk destroying the federal government, President Donald Trump on Saturday said he wanted his billionaire benefactor to be “more aggressive.”
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” he wrote on his social media site. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
Musk responded on his social media website by saying “Will do, Mr. President!”
As is so often the case when Trump says anything, the reality looks quite different.
While Musk has wreaked havoc in Washington, it remains to be seen whether he is just benefiting himself by putting in place his version of a federal government that gives him money and leaves him alone (with some white nationalism sprinkled in for good measure).
For now, there are a lot of claims of having identified “corruption” and “fraud” but nothing to show for them apart from allegations. The same is true for the “savings” he boasts about (in part because the administration may not be allowed to make these cuts), since the courts have put on ice much of what DOGE has been trying to accomplish… well, apart from wrecking the lives of countless government officials. That part has worked out just as Trump and Musk intended.
And that’s also the part that is beginning to upset Americans (as well as the fact that prices haven’t come down on Day 1 as they promised).
In the past few days, there has been ample anecdotal evidence that voters are getting frustrated with the administration’s scorched earth approach to government.
At several town halls with Republican lawmakers, people have voiced their unhappiness over how things are going.
Of course, not much of what Trump is doing these days, like rolling over for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is terribly popular.
But there is no doubt that Musk, in particular, is a drag on this administration.
As we reported, Americans just do not trust him with their private information or their money. In addition, they are concerned that potential conflicts of interest will arise when the world’s richest man also runs the world’s richest country.
As for Trump, after enjoying some of his best polling ever at the beginning of his presidency, things are starting to turn.
Two new polls in the past couple of days show that Americans are already souring on him and his agenda, which is focused on himself more than on them.
Trump, of course, feels that things are going splendidly.
This may be a case of Trump, Musk, and Republican lawmakers believing their own lies.
It is possible that they truly think that their (fairly) narrow election victory was a “landslide” and provided them with a “mandate” to radically change the country.
If that’s the case, they may all be in for a rude awakening.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
