What's Going On With Trump, Musk, and DOGE?

As President Donald Trump signed executive orders stopping diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Trump administration's beginning mass layoffs of federal workers. Musk has repeatedly claimed he's slashing the workforce and cancelling contracts in the name of cutting, quote, waste and fraud.

Everyone's losing their mind over Trump's executive orders and Elon Musk heading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. But why? Because Trump is actually doing what past presidents only promised? Because Musk is now eliminating government waste? Maybe the real fear isn't about who's making these decisions. Maybe it's because these decisions are exposing how broken our system really is.

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I'm Phil Clark, welcome back to We're Talking Money. So let's start with the obvious: what the heck is DOGE? Well, I'm not talking about the cryptocurrency. I'm talking about the Department of Government Efficiency, a division created to simply eliminate the waste of government and streamline operations. And guess who's running it? It's none other than Elon Musk.

Musk has a proven track record of revolutionizing not a company but industries. Tesla, it changed how we see electric vehicles. SpaceX slashed the cost of space travel, and Starlink is bringing internet to remote areas at a fraction of traditional cost. So why wouldn't you put a guy like this in charge of cleaning up the bloated US government?

The real controversy isn't about Musk's qualifications. Is that Washington's worst kept secret, it's finally being exposed. The US government, I think we can all agree, is wildly inefficient.

Let's clear up one more big misconception. A lot of people continue to talk about Elon Musk and why he shouldn't be involved in our government because he wasn't Ed. Let's talk civics for just a minute. The US Constitution makes it crystal clear: the president shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors or public ministers or counsels, judges of the Supreme Court, and all of the other officers of the United States.

This is how our government is designed. The president, he or she is the only person elected by the entire country. That person has the authority to appoint individuals to carry out executive functions. You must be asking, has this been a problem for other presidents? And the answer is no.

Yet many people, just like Elon Musk, they've been commissioned or appointed. People like Henry Kissinger, he was appointed by President Nixon. Or Penny Pritzker, talk about billionaire status, she was appointed by Barack Obama. Michael Bloomberg was appointed, and the list goes on. So whether you like Elon Musk or not, this isn't a new concept. Presidents have always brought in private sector leaders to reform and improve government agencies.

I want you to take a listen to what other presidents have said.

Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn't mean the child gets to stay.

We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants.

We know, and we have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means. The era of big government is over.

If these policies were so popular when Democrats promised them, why are they so terrifying when President Trump is actually delivering on these promises?

Let's move on and talk numbers. First, the US is drowning in nearly $40 trillion of debt. Our country is paying over $1 trillion in interest cost alone every year. That's more than we spend on the national defense budget. We're collecting about $5 trillion in taxes, but we're spending more than $7 trillion. You don't need a PhD to know that this is a disaster.

We've known for years that our government wastes money like it's a sport. The Pentagon, they spend upwards of $640 on toilet seats. The IRS loses billions of dollars every year to fraud. Studies why coffee spills when you're walking. Dead people's families still collecting Social Security. The list is endless.

Cutting government waste, let's be real here, it means cutting jobs, slashing budgets, and worst of all, holding people accountable. It's not that Elon Musk is unqualified. This guy is brilliant, and he's changed industries. Elon Musk is on track to do exactly what Washington never wanted, and that's cleaning house, or as Trump would say, draining the swamp.

So here's the bottom line. Forget the drama, forget the media spin. They want you to be in panic all the time. Ask yourself, are you scared of Trump and Musk, or are you scared that they might be proving how broken our government really is?

And if you're leaving it to your media to tell you the facts, whether you're left or right, whatever you're watching, they're not giving you everything that you need to hear. And what that does is it buys them the ability to go sell advertising so they can get paid. Think for yourself. The numbers don't lie. Stop blaming those who are trying to make it better and focus on where things will end if we keep going down the tracks of severe overspending.

I hope this gives you a different perspective on DOGE and what Elon Musk is trying to accomplish. Share your thoughts in the comments. I'd love to hear how you're thinking about this, and how would you fix the severe debt problems of our country? Don't forget to subscribe and hit that like button, and I'll see you next time on We're Talking Money.