@emptywheel.bsky.social

"Everywhere you look you have to wonder whether #SusieWiles is as much in charge as #AmyGleason is at #DOGE, whether her title of #ChiefofStaff is just a convenient fiction to cover up for the reality that #Trump does whatever the last person in the room tells him to do.

And often as not, the last person in the room is #StephenMiller."

Stephen Miller

One has to think that Trump has staffed the Federal government with the dregs he had around him, but there are simply too few competent true-believer acolytes to fill out the Federal government

Enter the few Trump Whispers, or perhaps really the single #TrumpWhisperer: Stephen Miller

"It’s not just that Stephen Miller is often the last one in the room with Trump. It’s not just that Stephen Miller’s policy ideas are batshit insane (and that he’s the author of Trump’s most egregious abuses of power). It’s also that Miller often stands in as the Word of DOGE, the Word of Trump."

Here: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/04/20/trump-has-no-policy-process-just-wormtongue-and-palace-intrigue/

DOGE Secretly Changes Receipts for Almost Half Its Supposed Savings

DOGE keeps quietly editing how much it has saved through its cuts.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192248/doge-changed-almost-half-savings-receipts

"errors still persisted on the site. #DOGE still claimed that it had saved $106 million by canceling two contracts... but in reality, those contracts were completed during the #Bush admn.

This isn’t the first time that this has happened. DOGE’s website... has turned into a hall of humiliation"

Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List of Savings

For the second time in a week, Elon Musk’s govt overhaul effort updated its “wall of receipts” to remove #mistakes that inflated its success.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/doge-musk-contracts-wall.html

"From its start, the list has been full of errors... claimed credit for contracts that had ended years or even decades before...

these mistakes raised questions about #DOGE ’s basic understanding of the federal #government"

Elon Musk’s DOGE Cuts Are Wreaking Havoc on Nuclear Safety

DOGE has gutted the nuclear #safety agency.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192247/elon-musk-doge-cuts-nuclear-safety

" #DOGE pledged that the mass firing only affected noncritical employees... but that was little more than a bold-faced #lie.

...staffers forced out of his position incl acting Chief of Defense #Nuclear Safety James Todd, a senior executive official and the “top authority for all #NuclearSafety matters in the agency”"

Elon Musk’s $1 Spending Limit Is Paralyzing Federal Agencies

The #DOGE -mandated credit card freeze is delaying shipments of critical supplies, stalling #travel, & stopping employees from doing their #jobs.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-elon-musk-spending-cuts-federal-workers/

"At the #NOAA, scientists aren’t able to order equipment used to repair ships... At the #FDA, laboratories are experiencing delays in ordering basic supplies... employees are already unable to carry out the basic functions of their job."

Social Security & Sex Robots: Musk Veers Off Script With Joe Rogan

Elon Musk’s 3-hour interview with “The #JoeRogan Experience” offered a window into his worldview that was by turns crude & contradictory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/us/politics/elon-musk-joe-rogan-podcast.html

“ #SocialSecurity is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk declared...

#Musk defended his efforts with #Doge, alternatively casting it as existential & downplaying its scope, while expounding on not-safe-for-work matters like #AI sex robots."

Senior USAID Leaders Warned #Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency

One million #children will go untreated for severe malnutrition, up to 166,000 people will die from #malaria & 200,000 more children will be paralyzed by #polio over the next decade...The programs were cut anyway.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-rubio-usaid-musk-death-toll-malaria-polio-tuberculosis

"Elon Musk's #DOGE, pressed ahead with their plan to dismantle #USAID... even as the admn publicly insisted that those programs remained online"

DOGE's Misplaced War on Software Licenses

DOGE claims that a #government agency has nearly three times as many #software licenses as employees. Experts say there are plenty of good reasons for that.
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-software-license-cancel-federal-budget/

"licensing for the program is based on the number of devices on which it is installed, not the number of employees...

the #DOGE stuff... “has some salience but is done in a bombastic way to make it seem like they are having more impact.”

All of Trump’s Appointees Are Sick of #ElonMusk

Donald Trump’s appointees are growing frustrated with DOGE’s dangerous shenanigans.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192220/elon-musk-donald-trump-cabinet

"Musk’s #email just isn’t good for efficiency.

...if two million federal employees spent 15 minutes responding to emails, at their average wage of $35 per hour, they would ultimately waste 500,000 hours and cost the #government $17.5 million.

“That’s a conservative estimate""

ElonMail, Take Two – Exec Branch Compliance Watch Update
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/elonmail-take-two-exec-branch-compliance-watch-update

"One rumor or belief that’s been circulating for the last week has been about the part of the emails which says to write the #email and cc their supervisor. A lot of people think that that is to enable #DOGE to create a #government wide org chart"

DOGE's cuts are harming veterans

That's not efficient. It's cruel, it's wrong, & it's unAmerican.
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/doges-cuts-are-harming-veterans

" #ElonMusk... bought access to the president... so he could launch his #DOGE program... that is firing hard working, essential, middle-class employees, including #veterans.

Firing veterans who perform essential duties isn’t #government efficiency, it’s cruel...

The real Trump/Musk objective appears to be #cruelty more than efficiency."

USAID Official Ousted While Writing Scathing Memo on #Trump Cuts

Nicholas Enrich was preparing a 3rd damning #memo on #DonaldTrump... cuts to USAID before he was forced out.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192227/usaid-official-third-memo-trump-cuts

"In his 1st memo, Enrich described severe staff reductions... in his 2nd, he noted 72... #USAID activities had no funding, leading to a #death toll that is “not known.” But in his 3rd memo, Enrich estimates how many people will die or get deadly diseases as a result of the cuts."

USAID Whistleblower Boldly Drops Truth Bomb On Trump

INSIDE: Marco Rubio ... ABJ ... #ElonMusk
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/usaid-whistleblower-boldly-drops-truth-bomb-on-trump

"senior #USAID official was placed on leave Sunday after he wrote a memo blowing the whistle on the #Trump admn...

The impacts on global #health outlined by Enrich are devastating, wide-ranging, and suggest hundreds of thousands of avoidable #deaths will result from Trump’s lawless destruction of USAID."

Trump Is About to Hide DOGE’s True Costs From the Entire Country

Trump’s commerce secretary is preparing to mess with the country’s economic statistics.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192216/trump-lutnick-economic-statistics-gdp-doge

"The #Trump administration might exclude #government spending from gross domestic product reports to cover up upcoming poor #economic reports, and to hide the true scope of #DOGE cuts.... [which] could have a negative impact on the #economy."

US may exclude govt spending from GDP, obscuring effect of Doge cuts

Howard Lutnick’s remarks echo #ElonMusk... [lies]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/03/trump-government-spending-gdp-doge

"spending cuts pushed by... Elon Musk’s so-called “dept of govt efficiency” ( #Doge) could possibly cause an economic downturn...

Govt spending is traditionally included in the #GDP because changes in #taxes, spending, deficits & regulations by the #government can affect the path of overall growth."

5 Ways #Trump Is Sabotaging the #UnitedStates
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/03/01/the-five-ways-trump-is-sabotaging-the-united-states/

" #USAID is just the most substantiated example of the sheer waste #DOGE is creating... similarly stupid decisions in the firings of critical personnel (some of whom get hired back), but also the elimination of long-term maintenance or #safety programs that will cost far more when those protections are gone...

possibility that Elon’s DOGE boys are doing something else w/the #data they’re accessing"