“I like what DOGE stands for. I don’t like how they’ve done it,” said one Trump appointee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe candid frustrations with Musk’s operation. The official compared DOGE to overly aggressive chemotherapy, invoking a line attributed to Musk about one of his deputies, praising the team for combating the federal bureaucracy but saying the unintended consequences have been deeply harmful. “They got rid of the cancer — and a lot of the healthy cells, too.”
Except they misdiagnosed the patient. It didn’t have cancer at all. It had a little cold and they blasted it with chemo for nothing, almost killing off its immune system for nothing.
That quote is from an article about how Elon Musk has destroyed his brand and reputation in his sojourn into politics. Nobody likes him anymore.
Initially, Musk had a “panache” that was unique for the Republican Party, said Christopher Nicholas, a GOP strategist in Pennsylvania. But now, he is a “lightning rod.”
Even some Musk backers have acknowledged that his freewheeling style can cause complications.
Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said on an episode of the “All-In” podcast last month that he and Musk had a plan before taking the stage at a Trump campaign rally in October: Musk would announce a goal to slash the federal budget by $1 trillion.
Then they walked out in front of a boisterous crowd — and Musk began to riff and wound up doubling the total.
“He says $2 trillion [in cuts],” Lutnick said on the podcast. “And then I’m sitting there going, and I’m like, I think I said, ‘Alrighty then.’ Or something like that. … What was I supposed to say?”
Lol. He was just imitating Trump who lies like that all the time. And Lutnick makes similar grandiose claims. This is just purely palace intrigue with Musk’s competitors easing him out. The Wisconsin loss was the coup de grace.