this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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Summary

Elon Musk is distancing himself from sweeping federal job cuts linked to DOGE, blaming agency heads—not DOGE—responsible for mass layoffs, including the announced 70,000 job cut at Veterans Affairs.

Despite claiming DOGE’s role as merely advisory, Musk admitted to mistakes in private meetings with GOP lawmakers and pledged to correct them.

Some cuts have already been reversed, with a Trump administration memo clarifying agencies are not required to fire probationary employees (new hires).

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[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I really hope this becomes a modern day Icarus story of a billionaire who flew too close to the sun and then set off a radical turn events for the better.

[–] maniclucky@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago

No mention of the judge's decision that the firings were likely illegal? That's some shit journalism.

For the uninformed

[–] roofTophopper@lemmy.world 57 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Man, fuck this guy. 100000% all him. You don't get to distance yourself from this when you're the one holding the bloody knife. Fuck everything this guy does. Every single day this guy needs to be reminded of how much of a fuck up he is.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The world would instantly become a much better place if he killed himself right now

It'd become an even better place if we the people killed him.

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[–] MunkyNutts@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

holding the bloody ~~knife~~ chainsaw

[–] yarr@feddit.nl 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Elon Musk is saving the US money in the same way that not paying your mortgage saves money. The real question to ask is not "how much are we spending on X" but "Are the benefits we receive for paying for X worth it?" No surprise, that deeper analysis is NOT being done because fans of the right are just out for blood in the form of cancelled government programs. After all, why not? Trump has told them for years now that the government lies, that every single program is flush with waste and so on. They are basically getting what they asked for, except they never considered the deeper effects. This is why the right wants uneducated masses. If they aren't using critical thinking skills, they're perfect supporters.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think the reason for the spending cuts is so they can justify a massive tax cut for the rich. They will be essentially paying nothing, but your pleb taxes will go up and your pleb services canceled in the name of plutocratic profit.

[–] yarr@feddit.nl 3 points 19 hours ago

For sure. Like usual, he's not motivated by just a pure hate for government programs. As always, it's a grift. Look at the $TRUMP crypto project. He doesn't feel bad fleecing his biggest fans. And why should he? They will never figure it out. They will just blame their lack of money on Biden or something.

[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 83 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Too fucking bad, shitstick. When the ship sinks I hope he's chained to the fucking mast.

[–] Lennnny@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I upvoted because this isn't reddit.

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[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The billionaire bureaucrat has claimed this defense to his organization’s cost-cutting measures before, saying that DOGE simply makes recommendations for cuts to agency heads, and then it’s up to those heads to execute them.

"It's not MY fault they did what I told them to do!"

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago

Its not just that but they fired multiple agency heads for not obeying his orders. Its farcical when he's choosing the agency heads

[–] kelpie_returns@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

He is as much a coward as he is a fool.

[–] Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee 48 points 1 day ago (8 children)

If you were the richest person in the entire world, by a huge margin!!! Would you start working in the government and have tons of responsibilities? Or would you retire and live the life you’ve dreamed of?

This guy is insane.

[–] melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

wanting that much money requires it.

having that much money also inflicts it on you.

no more billionaires. for their sake, as much as ours.

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[–] negativeone@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

We recognize that if someone just wants to consume an infinite amount of alcohol then they have an addiction. We recognize addictions to food, and sex, and shopping.

But we worship money so much that we’ve completely failed to recognize that you can be addicted to money, too. You can be so obsessed with it that you hurt people around you, that you damage your community, and want to consume vastly more than you need. In the case of billionaires, their addiction has caused them to accumulate so much money that it’s destroying the global economy, and it’s still not enough.

We’re like an irresponsible bartender, serving them more and more regardless of the damage. It’s time to cut these people off. Once you’ve got a billion, you’ve had enough. Go home.

[–] spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This guy is insane.

Pretty sure he's got "a" personality disorder that makes him crave being in the spotlight, and the dude isn't smart or socially aware enough to understand just how little the dude knows. Leading him to doing more and more stupid shit to stay in the spotlight and scrambling to unfuck himself after the fact. On some level, it would be funny how he's been tripping over his dick and failing upward his whole life. Ya know, if he weren't currently destroying the country and all that.

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[–] caged_danimal@midwest.social 9 points 1 day ago

Would you start working in the government and have tons of responsibilities?

Your confusion is that you think Elon could possibly feel responsibility. He gets more free money and all the access he could ever want. He gets power to bend other countries to his will.

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[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Please Americans give the democrats the congress, so they can force Elmo into multi-week hearings Hunter Biden style. Make him lie under oath so much he’ll never recover

[–] stefenauris@pawb.social 11 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately at this point I don't see lying under oath being much of a crime anymore

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why, so they can show up in pink dresses and wave signs some more? The majority of them are just the other side of the oligarch coin at this point.

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[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bold of you to assume the current administration will let you vote, except maybe as for where specifically the concentration camps for LGBTQ people will be built.

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[–] Brdi29@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Musk privately acknowledged that he’d made some massive missteps, and that he “can’t bat a thousand all the time,”

You got rid of all the gear for your team, you're not batting at all wtf

[–] icmpecho@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

motherfucker threw the bat in the woodchipper

[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And it was an aluminum bat.

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[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 37 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Hard to distance yourself from something so massive

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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 266 points 2 days ago (6 children)
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[–] undystains@lemm.ee 79 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bro mistook a bunch of Russian bots praising him in his echo chamber as real people.

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[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This asshole is treating these jobs like he treated Twitter. Fire everyone, see what breaks, then hire those people back. Real efficient there! Let's not actually review processes and jobs to see if there are overlaps anywhere. Just get rid of everyone and see what grinds to a halt or is really unpopular with people.

The government isn't the place to run "scream tests."

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[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Good, maybe he'll stop. Sheer incompetence was our only saving grace with the first Trump admin. Let's hope this time is more of the same in that regard, as well.

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 62 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Time for stage two of the plan: shift the blame to the young nobody scapegoats.

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[–] cley_faye@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Musk admitted to mistakes in private meetings with GOP lawmakers and pledged to correct them

Please no. I'm not sure the world's ready for more of this ass "fixing" things.

[–] match@pawb.social 81 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Someone should tell Trump that he can just confiscate all of Musk's assets at any time and instantly become the richest man in the world.

(The truth of this statement is not relevant to whether Trump should be told this.)

[–] gamer@lemm.ee 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

he has immunity from criminal prosecution, and it could be claimed that Elon (an illegal immigrant) has assets that can be used to help pay off the national debt.

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[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 58 points 1 day ago

kids, this is called gaslighting.

[–] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

Maybe he should jump up and down and wave his arms like the top part of an "x".

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Because efficiancy never was the goal. "DOGE" is just a knock-off of Yarvin's "RAGE" (Retire All Government Employees), likely done to both stroke Muskrat's ego, and to obfuscate Yarvin from the "normies".

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[–] xorollo@leminal.space 8 points 1 day ago

This feels like part of the plan. They make agencies do it and distribute blame for the crash. Elmo is already a scapegoat for Turp. Now they can roll that shit downhill.

[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Hahaha after walking around a stage in front of thousands of people at CPAC carrying a fucking chainsaw.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 99 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The buck stops over there, with that other guy....

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[–] zildjiandrummer1@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (9 children)

He's said he's scared for his life. I think that's reasonable given the amount of people he's pissing off. It's only a matter of time...

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is why that fucking creep uses his son as a prop and headshot shield.

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[–] CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net 27 points 1 day ago

Let us pray that the patron saint Luigi watches over him night and day.

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[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Aww, he's so modest, isn't he?

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 66 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is because Trump slipped up at his address to Congress and called Musk the head of the agency when he's legally not supposed to be. Now they're just playing the game of zero integrity and trying to twist things around to pretend that he's not the one making all the decisions because it's illegal and lawmakers picked up on Trump's slip up.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not just lawmakers. There's a bunch of lawsuits trying to use the federal courts to figure out:

  • What is DOGE in the federal government?
  • What is the nature of the "DOGE Temporary Organisation?"
  • Who is in charge of DOGE? (Definitely not Musk, officially...)
  • Why can DOGE make all these consequential personnel decisions up and down the federal government?

These are all things that have been shrouded in secrecy, obfuscation, and contradiction. Because the truth is that the real answers are not legally sound. The fact that these people are scared to say the real truth is a good sign, because it means they still have some fear of the courts and institutions. Those institutions still have some power to mess up the plan.

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[–] ghostrider2112@lemmy.world 73 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

Elon Musk’s boards and shareholders don’t want Musk having credit for Musk’s involvement with Disastrous DOGE Cuts. Elon wouldn’t have been on a stage with a chainsaw if Elon didn’t want credit.

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