‘Godzilla ruined the city’: How Elon Musk failed at Doge ...Middle East

For many, it was inevitable the bromance between Elon Musk and Donald Trump would end in tears, but few thought the Tesla boss’s exit from the US government would be so explosive.

On Thursday evening, the mutual back-slapping turned into a full-on war of words, as Musk revealed the unsubstantiated allegation that Trump appeared in the court files of America’s most notorious paedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.

Since leaving his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) last week, Musk repeatedly had criticised the President’s plans to cut taxes for the rich and healthcare budgets in his “Big Beautiful Bill”, currently going through Congress, but the disagreement had remained something akin to cordial.

Trump had not publicly criticised his former “First Buddy”, and Musk just about kept away from personal attacks on the man he backed with $288m of his own money in last November’s presidential race.

But the truce held for just six days.

“Time to drop the really big bomb,” wrote Musk on his social media platform X, adding that Trump “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Musk did not provide any evidence of the President’s inclusion in the documents. He followed up the accusation by reposting a video of Trump at an Esptein-hosted party in 1992.

Donald Trump threatened to revoke government contracts from Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX as the public feud escalated (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty)

One question circulating Washington is what caused Musk to go nuclear? Why did he escalate a political disagreement over Trump’s budget bill to personal attack?

It may have something to with a leak that alleged Musk is dependent on a cocktail of drugs to get through the day.

Earlier this week, a report from The New York Times raised concerns over his drug use on the 2024 campaign trail. The newspaper reported Musk told people on the stump he was using ketamine so often that it impacted his bladder, along with using psychedelic mushrooms and taking ecstasy.

Musk hit back, claiming the newspaper was “was lying their ass off”.

One man who knows all about falling out with Trump, believes it was this leak that may have caused Musk’s outburst.

Anthony Scaramucci, co-host of The Rest is Politics US podcast, said: “The ketamine drop came from inside the administration, right. We all know that, because you know how Washington works, and so I think that inflamed Elon.”

Did Musk quit, or was he pushed?

Trump himself suggested another reason for Musk’s antagonism was that he was sulking after being fired from his role at Doge.

The US President had remained uncharacteristically reserved in response to Musk’s criticism of the “Big Beautiful Bill”, which he called an “abomination” and claims will add $600bn to the US deficit, taking it to $2.5tn.

But his patience broke following Musk’s posts on Thursday night, which also included a poll on whether he should launch a third political party that “represents the 80 per cent in the middle”, a threat to withdraw Space X from the Nasa space programme and a claim that Trump’s tarrifs will send the US into recession in the second half of this year.

In a post on his own platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Elon was ‘wearing thin’, I asked him to leave.”

In an unusual twist, Scaramucci agrees with his former boss even though he was fired after just 10 days as the White House press secretary.

“Elon got fired,” he said. “How did I know that he got fired? Some sources inside the administration.

“Godzilla is leaving the city in ruins”, is how public sector expert Max Stier described Musk’s exit from Doge.

Stier is president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service (PPS), which describes itself as a non-partisan organisation with a mission to inspire a new generation of civil servants and to transform the way government works.

Stier’s claims the actions of world’s wealthiest person during his 129 days at in the budget slashing department is akin to “arson”.

After backing President Donald Trump’s election campaign with $288m of his own cash, Musk was rewarded with a temporary role at Doge.

Initially, Musk claimed he would save as much as $2tn a year from public sector budgets, but later halved this pledge. In the end, the cost-cutting did not reach anywhere near that level before Musk departed the government.

Even by Doge’s own official figure, which publishes a running total of estimated savings on its website, the current level of annual savings stands at $180m.

So far, more than 75,000 federal workers have agreed to a form of buyout called deferred retirement, but they will remain on government payrolls until later this year.

In all, more than 260,000 of around three million public sector staff in the US are understood to have been fired.

Elon Musk pictured holding a chainsaw during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 20, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Katie Drummond, global editorial director of tech media brand Wired, is convinced that even this figure is being overplayed by the administration.

“To some extent, the successes depend on the person being asked,” says Drummond, who has covered Musk’s career and his role at Doge more than most. “If you’re asking whether Musk and Doge cut meaningful cost of the government, the answer is no.”

For Stier, however, the question is how real any of these savings are and their impact on everyday Americans.

“Musk has not saved even remotely close to $180bn,” he says. “More importantly, the money that they largely described as saved is the same as someone saying I’ve saved money because I haven’t paid my electricity bill or I haven’t filled my car with gasoline.

‘It’s been a true nightmare’

“Well, now you can’t drive anywhere, and now you have, you have to sit around in the dark.

“It’s been a true nightmare, adds Stier. “It’s arson.”

There are those that believe Musk used his role in Doge to further his own business interests. Drummond, who has reported on the man throughout his rise to incredible wealth, is not one of them.

“I do not think it’s money, or contracts, or being a successful chief executive, she says. “I think in his mind, it’s much, much bigger and more existential than that.”

For now, though, it appears the priority for Musk is to rebuild his reputation among his investors and customers. Stier is not so sure he can, but hopes he tries.

“It’s going to be a very heavy lift, because the damage that he has caused is so profound,” says Stier. “I hope, though, that he tries because he is clearly someone who has incredible capacity and obviously has unbelievable wealth.

“He owes this country and our society his damnedest to fix things that he is broken.” The White House and Elon Musk did not respond to a requests for comment.

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