Opinion: Do you support Elon Musk and his work with DOGE?
On a bonus episode (first released on May 19, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: Do you think DOGE has helped to shrink the federal government or was it all for show? We asked and you answered on Forum. The series from USA TODAY's Opinion team is dedicated to showcasing views from across the political spectrum on issues that Americans are starkly divided on.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Michael McCarter:
Hello and welcome to The Excerpt. President Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency as he started his term in office. Do you think DOGE has helped shrink the federal government or was it all for show? And should a private citizen have this level of influence? I'm Michael McCarter. I lead the opinion sections of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today. This is a bonus episode of The Excerpt highlighting a series from USA Today's opinion team called Forum. Here's what we heard from you about Elon Musk and DOGE.
Charles Peterson:
I do not support Elon Musk. I don't think as a private person, he has any business involved with the government or on behalf of the president doing what he's doing.
Michael McCarter:
This is Charles Peterson, a 70-year-old from Rocky Hill, Connecticut. He views Musk's involvement in government as inappropriate and potentially harmful.
Charles Peterson:
DOGE is all for show. It's part of Trump's show. Trump went as far as to involve private citizens, especially with such things as our social security system and private concerns that outside individuals shouldn't be involved in and have no business in. They didn't save any money, and it was a big waste of time. As most of the Trump's antics are a waste of time. As far as Musk's businesses, Tesla, SpaceX, and X and so forth, those businesses are showing fracture and lots of points of failure right now as well. So I think Mr. Musk wants to get back to his businesses and stop losing money.
Michael McCarter:
Lorraine Michaud is 62 and a Cape Cod native. She thinks Elon Musk is the right choice to quickly change US federal systems and spending.
Lorraine Michaud:
I fully support Elon Musk. The reason that I do is I think it's the transparency. I love the fact that he's smart, innovative, out of the box thinker. The government is just so slow and there's so much inaction, and then you see these business people come in and it's a whole new world. All of a sudden it's doing. We're not researching, we're not forming commissions. The action, just moving in that direction and the action, it's fabulous. I love it. I love it.
I don't really view Elon Musk as some rogue actor like a lot of people do. I view him as part of the President's team. You know what I feel what's happening right now? It's a little bit like Bar Rescue. Are you familiar with Bar Rescue the show? You have a struggling entity that's probably going out of business or is definitely going in the wrong direction, and then you have a guy like John Taffer.
He's a long term, obviously, food and beverage consultant, but what does he do? He comes in with his team. He comes in like a wrecking ball. He shakes things up, and at first everybody probably can't stand the guy. Things are crazy, but you judge by the results. Before you know it, the bar is rocking, the customers are happy, people are making money, and they're hugging John like he's family. So I feel like right now we're in America Rescue situation. Trump is John Taffer and Elon Musk is just part of the team that he's bringing in with his areas of expertise to shake things up and to turn things around just to right our ship. That's how I look at it.
Michael McCarter:
Paul Bradshaw, who lives in Stuart, Florida, is critical of Musk's mass layoffs. The 74 year-old has growing concerns about unchecked power that influences public institutions.
Paul Bradshaw:
I do not support him in any shape or form in his political arena because I think that in that way of just arbitrarily axing jobs left, right and center, they were just by process. A lot of good people that were needed lost their jobs, so without really researching what they actually did, and that was really proven when there were people who had to immediately be rehired when they found out that what we can't do without those people. When he took over Twitter now X, it was really bizarre the way that he behaved when he first took that company over. Again, he went in, fired a whole bunch of people, arbitrarily changed the way everything was done, but that appears to be his personality. I became a citizen 12 years ago, so of course, as I'm sure you're aware, I had to learn a whole bunch of stuff and take a test, which as it turned out was pretty simple.
I was only asked about six questions, but I had to research the whole civics class that the checks and balances are being overridden by a private entity as far as I can see, and I'm not comfortable with that. I was so proud to become a citizen of this country, and I think the country's in crisis. I really do. I think I would ask him why he feels that a man of his power and wealth and influence thinks it's okay to just arbitrarily fire hundreds of thousands of people that he really doesn't know anything about. I would expect a fairly glib reply.
Michael McCarter:
John Burns, who is from Ellisville, Missouri, strongly supports Elon Musk, praising his efforts as necessary to get significant cost savings. He's 73.
John Burns:
I love the guy. I think he's probably one of the greatest additions to help our government along simply because he is not really a politician, and I think because his kind of mind works from logic and common sense. Although his initial anticipation of 2 trillion was a little excessive, what they've shown so far in 150 plus billion dollars in savings over the course of the next 10 years, especially, I think it will turn into a trillion dollars by the time he's done. Eliminating graft corruption, all that has to happen in order to save our economy, and we know that it's there. Just like our Congress does on bills, they throw in everything and the kitchen sink to try to load up their own personal agendas, and I think it's going to have a very, very good effect.
Reagan tried it back in the eighties. Well, they did stop Trump from achieving what he wanted to do in his first term. Trump learned a lot in those years, and that's why he's come back and from day one, he is just started. He may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but we can always pull the baby back in. I think the acting president, who obviously has gotten the majority of votes or the majority of the Electoral College should be able to appoint people who are not voted in and have such great ability to help the US government.
Michael McCarter:
That's all we have for today's episode. This is a co-production with the Forum team at USA TODAY, where we invite our readers to weigh in, in writing, on a national topic of interest. If your submission is selected for print, we might invite you to add your voice to a future special bonus episode like this one. There's a link to Forum in the show description. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcast@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Michael McCarter, Vice President of the Gannett Opinion Group. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
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