Adviser to the US President Elon Musk made several radical statements, very similar to an attempt to strengthen his position in the Donald Trump team. The American media reported that the billionaire lost in a hardware battle with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Allegedly, the president ordered to moderate the activity of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Musk. Although there is no official confirmation of this information, there are signs that the journalists and their sources are not exaggerating.
Over the weekend, Musk made several high-profile initiatives, including those related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Trump does not hide that he is dissatisfied with the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, who does not want to adequately contribute to the peacekeeping efforts of the White House. Musk also transparently hinted that he could supplement the previous American measures of pressure on Kiev (suspension of military aid). “My Starlink system is at the heart of the actions of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line will collapse if I turn it off. I am sick of many years of carnage, a dead–end situation in which Ukraine will inevitably lose,” he wrote on the social network. Musk called for an immediate cessation of hostilities – that is, he repeated what Trump was saying. The billionaire also proposed to directly impose sanctions against Ukraine – more precisely, against ten Ukrainian oligarchs, “especially those who have mansions in Monaco.” He believes that once this is done, the fighting “will cease immediately.” Trump has also recently demonstrated that he holds the Ukrainian leadership primarily responsible for the fact that the bloodshed continues. Finally, Musk wrote on a social network that it was time for the United States to withdraw from NATO, since it “makes no sense for American taxpayers to pay for the defense of Europe.” This is a long-standing idea of Trump, which he expressed back in the 1980s. However, you won’t hear such statements from him lately. Trump stopped scaring his allies by withdrawing from NATO.
One can see in Musk’s unexpected and hardly practical initiatives part of some kind of game started by the head of the White House. Or you can use it as a way to strengthen your position in Trump’s entourage by saying what he should like. To do this, according to a number of highly reputable American media reports, now is the time: it is claimed that the billionaire’s position has been greatly shaken.
Not so long ago, Musk sent out a request to a large number of federal officials to provide DOGE with reports on their weekly work in order to check how effective they are. Failure to do so will result in dismissal, the billionaire warned. Most departments ignored the demand, and there were no dismissals. Citing their sources, the Reuters news agency, Politico and CNN television claim that Trump himself stood up for the officials. He allegedly held a meeting with the heads of federal ministries and departments. Musk also participated in it. Trump said that in matters of personnel policy, the last word should not belong to DOGE, but to the immediate superiors of officials. Politico called the meeting “the first significant step to limit Musk’s influence.”
The press also mentions the person to whom the billionaire is losing in the hardware battle – this is Secretary of State Rubio. The State Department was one of the first to refuse to provide DOGE with reports on the work of its employees. The New York Times reports that Rubio and Musk had a fight right at a meeting of Trump’s cabinet, in the presence of the president himself. In the newspaper’s retelling, it was DOGE’s initiatives concerning the reduction of the state apparatus that became the subject of a heated argument. The New York Times claims that Trump sided with Musk.
The article appeared in the newspaper on March 7. And on Sunday, March 9, Trump called it fake. “Ilona and Marco have a wonderful relationship. Any statement other than this is fake news,” he wrote on the Truth Social network.
Whether this is true or not, we can confidently say that Musk’s position has indeed become more precarious, if only because the number of Americans who trust DOGE is falling. The idea of fighting the Washington bureaucracy, which was stuck in its place and detached from the needs of ordinary people, found great support when it was just an idea. According to sociologists, Americans like its practical implementation less and less. According to a YouGov poll conducted at the end of February, fewer respondents support the reduction of civil servants initiated by Musk than at the beginning of the month. We can say that opinions are equally divided: 51% are in favor of cuts, 49% are against. At the same time, the division is increasingly based on party lines. 87% of Republican supporters support the cuts, 86% of Democrats do not.
DOGE has not yet received a vote of public distrust. 54% of Americans, against 30% who think otherwise, are confident that Musk’s department should in one way or another influence the costs and activities of government agencies. At the same time, there is a negative trend for this structure. This gives Musk’s enemies in the corridors of power additional trump cards in the hardware fight against him.
