Elon Musk announced yesterday that he was stepping back from his work at the Department of Government Efficiency to focus more on his companies, particularly Tesla.
Given that his intense focus on Washington appears to be abating, if not concluding, I thought it might be a good time to assess what, exactly, he has achieved there so far. And what better way to grade him than using the same method with which he sought to evaluate thousands of government workers?
Back in February, DOGE demanded that federal employees send an email each week listing five bullet points of their accomplishments.
So, here are five bullet points on what Musk achieved in Washington:
-
He tanked his company. Tesla’s profits plummeted by 71 percent from last year, the company reported on Tuesday. And even as sales of electric vehicles rose globally, Tesla sales have slumped because of competition from Chinese carmakers and Mr. Musk’s support for right-wing causes. On a call with investors on Tuesday, Musk attributed the decline to “those receiving the waste and fraud” from the government. “The protests that you’ll see out there, they’re very organized. They’re paid for,” he said, providing no evidence for his claim.
-
He became unpopular. Polling shows that Musk’s approval ratings have taken a nosedive since he came to Washington, largely driven by disapproval among Democratic and independent voters. In a Marquette University poll this month, 38 percent of Americans said they had a favorable view of Musk, compared with 60 percent who viewed him unfavorably.
-
He cut some government spending, but we don’t really know how much. Musk arrived in Washington with promises to cut $1 trillion from the next fiscal year’s federal budget. On a website tracking its progress, DOGE put the savings at $160 billion. But as my colleagues have reported, that estimate might be inflated. The group’s accounting has been riddled with billion-dollar errors and it has claimed to have cut spending that was never even scheduled for this year.
-
He became the country’s biggest political donor. An analysis released last month found that Musk had donated more than $291 million to Republican candidates, political action committees and other conservative organizations during the 2024 race. That’s nearly $95 million more than the next largest Republican contributor and more than four times more than the largest donor to Democratic candidates.
Since the election, he has shown no sign of halting his involvement in electoral politics. Musk and allied groups spent more than $20 million on a Wisconsin state Supreme Court contest, transforming the race into a referendum on him — and he lost. And he has threatened primary challenges against any Republican House member who does not support President Trump’s agenda.
-
He scooped up a ton of personal data. Through his executive order creating DOGE, Trump granted Musk’s group access to “all unclassified agency records” — a category that includes sensitive information on virtually everyone in America. A recent Times investigation found that Musk’s team has tried to access databases that track more than 300 separate pieces of data, including not just Social Security numbers but immigration status, gambling income, student loan balances and even professional job references. We don’t know precisely what data the DOGE team has about you, but it could be quite a lot.
BY THE NUMBERS
Americans like the idea of cutting government waste, but dislike Musk
The idea underpinning the Department of Government Efficiency — that the government is wasteful and inefficient — is a view most Americans have held for decades, according to surveys. And Americans mostly support the concept of DOGE when asked about it directly.
But they generally are not pleased with many of the details, particularly Elon Musk’s involvement, according to a New York Times review of polls on the subject. In fact, when asked if Musk is doing a good job with DOGE, nearly 60 percent of voters disapproved of his job performance while 40 percent approved.
And in a Quinnipiac University poll this month, 57 percent of voters said Musk had too much power in decisions that affect the country, including 16 percent of Republicans.
Read more here.
— Ruth Igielnik, Christine Zhang
MEANWHILE on X
A return to shop talk
Tesla’s announcement that its first-quarter profits had plunged prompted Elon Musk to try to placate investors. My colleague Kate Conger reports on how he expanded on those efforts using his social-media feed.
Of course, the first quarter also marked the beginning of Musk’s federal cost-cutting project, which has shaken Washington and inspired protests outside Tesla dealerships nationwide. Tesla investors have worried that Musk is too distracted to run his electric vehicle maker, and Musk tried to reassure them yesterday, telling analysts he planned to scale back his government work.
On Wednesday, Musk continued those efforts on X. He reposted another user who shared his remarks about stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency, and spent much of the morning posting about his business accomplishments at Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, his artificial intelligence startup.
“Only 66 years from first flight to landing on the Moon in 1969,” Musk wrote in one post, trumpeting his ambitions for SpaceX. “Here we are, 76 years later cannot yet return to the Moon. We should have been on Mars by now.”
He also shared posts that praised xAI’s chatbot, Grok; discussed the ability of his satellite internet service, Starlink, to provide internet in remote locations; and claimed that new Teslas would soon be able to drive themselves from the factory directly to buyers.
It’s a noticeable departure from the stream of political posts that have occupied Musk’s timeline for the past few months, and an indication that Musk wants to appease Tesla investors who believe he hasn’t been paying enough attention to his business responsibilities.
— Kate Conger
you shouldn’t miss
At Musk’s behest, voters cast ballots for a new town: Starbase, Texas
Voting has begun on a measure to formally incorporate Starbase, Texas, the town long dreamed of by Musk to be home to his rocket company, SpaceX, and its 3,500 employees. J. David Goodman brings us this dispatch from the southern tip of Texas.
