What is Elon Musk doing at Donald Trump’s inauguration? 

That was the question I asked as the camera panned to him during Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. At first, I was simply confused. I didn’t realize there was any correlation between the President and the tech giant. After doing some digging, however, I learned that Trump and Musk are close associates.

How did this connection spark, though? Musk wears many hats: he’s the owner of companies such as Tesla, X (formally Twitter), and SpaceX. He is also the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $379.9 billion. Of that large sum of money, Musk decided to donate nearly $240 million of it to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, making him the President’s largest campaign donor. 

What did Musk receive in return? After his inauguration, Trump designated Musk to oversee a new, temporary service organization: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

According to the White House, DOGE’s goal is to “[modernize] federal technology and software to maximize efficiency and productivity.” In actuality, DOGE has been cutting federal spending in hopes of reducing the U.S.’s debt. The organization is scheduled to terminate on July 4th, 2026. 

Musk’s appointment alone, in my opinion, is a giant red flag. Sure, Musk has a ton of experience regarding revolutionary technology—he is the Product Architect of Tesla and Chief Designer of SpaceX, ​​along with being CEO of both—but he has no government experience. How can someone effectively oversee the reduction of billions of dollars to dozens of federal departments if they are not previously familiar with government protocols and proceedings? 

His position in the government is also vague: when Trump was asked about Musk’s official role, no clear response was given. Since DOGE’s actions are affecting the country, I believe that the government should be transparent about who is leading and making decisions in the department. 

Musk spearheading these projects also prompts ethical concerns for me. Despite the White House stating that Musk will excuse himself from contracts and funding that suggest a conflict of interest, I don’t see this working out. As humans, we often struggle to detect other biases, let alone our own, so I doubt Musk will be able to recognize these conflicts every time they come up. Intentionally or unintentionally, he could be helping his businesses with the cuts to spending  that he decides to make.

Musk’s recent actions as head of DOGE have validated my concerns. The expectations of the billionaire are to reduce the federal spending and workforce along with improving government technology. These goals of reducing spending in pursuit of an efficient government are valid to me. America’s national debt is currently $36.22 trillion dollars, and the average American is around $100,000 in debt. 

What is not rational, in my opinion, is the way that DOGE—under Musk—is going about achieving these goals. The U.S. federal spending is higher than its budget, and so the nation is in debt. To decrease government spending and debt, part of Musk’s plan is to lower the size of the government by firing what he deems as “unnecessary” federal workers. For the past two weeks, he has sent emails instructing three million federal employees to send a list of five tasks they performed at work that week and will have their performances accordingly judged. Musk hopes that, by having less employees, the government will save money by paying fewer wages. 

In practice, though, this is not effective. If all three million federal employees take 15 minutes out of their day, each week, to respond to said email, government efficiency already goes down by having them waste time typing up a response. Furthermore, most government employees already have supervisors they regularly report to. Emailing back the tasks they achieved each week to a different supervisor is repetitive and unnecessary. 

Many federal employees also work on confidential projects or missions that are kept secret for the protection of our country. Due to that, the emails say that “If all of your activities are classified or sensitive, please write, ‘All of my activities are sensitive.’” DOGE learns nothing about a worker’s effectiveness if the worker just has to respond that all their work is classified; the department is just wasting the employee’s time by having them email back. 

In its short life span, DOGE has had a variety of other scandals as well. To name one, many claim that the department violates the

Privacy Act of 1974 which “prohibits the disclosure of a record about an individual from a system of record absent the written consent of the individual.” These claims stem from the fact that several DOGE members received access to the Office of Personnel Management’s—which deals with government employment—computer systems that have the data of federal employees on them. By doing this, DOGE is interfering with the privacy of federal employees—the same privacy that is supposed to be protected by the government. 

DOGE has also made the disappointing decision to cut the budget of the Department of Education. On Feb. 11, DOGE declared on X that they terminated 29 grants hoping to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in school curriculums. It is incredibly concerning to me that the government is cutting these grants. Children need to be properly educated about diversity and inclusion in schools so they can grow up to be open-minded adults who accept everyone regardless of their race, gender, or sexual identity.

I understand DOGE’s goal of improving the U.S. economy, but it will take more than defunding several departments and firing federal workers to do so. Instead, Musk needs to find ways to generate money for the U.S. government to begin chipping away at the national debt. Regrettably, with his unfortunate performance so far as the head of DOGE, I’m unsure it will happen.