this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
411 points (97.7% liked)

politics

30554 readers
2236 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News

• World News

• Business News

• Political Discussion

• Ask Politics

• Military News

• Global Politics

• Moderate Politics

• Progressive Politics

• UK Politics

• Canadian Politics

• Australian Politics

• New Zealand Politics

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
outrageousmatter@lemmy.world
aidan@lemmy.world
jordanlund@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
Theonetheycall1845@lemmy.world
JuBe@lemmy.world
Lasherz12@lemmy.world
411
Elon Musk says he ‘got carried away’ with DOGE and Trump after gutting the government (www.independent.co.uk)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Sunflier@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
114 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Elon Musk admits he “got carried away” working inside Donald Trump’s administration as the unelected director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where he implemented mass firings and radically cut federal spending.

“I think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly,” he told The Economist in a wide-ranging interview published Thursday, but offered few specifics on what he regretted.

But the world’s wealthiest man — who pumped millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign before he was deputized to oversee the president’s brutal cost-cutting operation — defended the work of DOGE and his dismantling of the nation’s global aid agency that he once promised to put through a “wood chipper.”

“We need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities. And I got a lot of flack for this, obviously,” he said.

I wonder if he can just see the writing on the wall, or if he was actually using a cannon to kill a fly? Maybe its that SpaceX isn't doing so hot? Maybe its the investigation related to tRump going on about how Musk "really knows those voting machines" and how they'll "never have to vote again".

Either way, people are dead because of him. We won't forget, and there will be an accounting for this.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

This article tries to make him sound better than he was too. "where he implemented mass firings and radically cut federal spending."

He didn't radically cut federal spending. Federal spending isn't down, he just fired people and the money stayed the same really.

Let's say the CDC that is struggling to track this parasite presumed in lettuce(cyclosporiasis) which was tracked since 1997. Why, well Kennedy told them not to track it anymore in July 2025. July 2026, largest number of cases ever recorded.

The CDC fired ~3200 people, roughly 25% of their staff. Yet the budget request for the CDC in 2026 isn't really any different than 2025, 2024 etc. Maybe a fair comparison would be comparing the 2018, 2019 time period during Trump's first admin to now, the CDC budget is essentially the same when you adjust it for inflation over that time.

Full federal budget estimates look like

2024 budget: 6.8 trillion

2025 budget: 7 trillion

2026 we are at 5.52 trillion including June with 6 months left

So it surely doesn't look like he "radically cut federal spending"... He just radically cut federal employment, and they are still spending the money.

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

So it surely doesn’t look like he “radically cut federal spending”… He just radically cut federal employment

He radically cut spending alright. He radically cut spending on ensuring the wellbeing of the not-rich. The spending is now just all going to the Epstein class.

[–] left_is_best@feddit.online 4 points 4 days ago

These people are eugenicists. They are trying to kill us. The ones they can't kill will have their wealth siphoned from them to fund this balooning, kleptocratic federal deficit. They are looting the near-dead body of the empire so they can transcend nations, and us, the blood, flesh and bones, will be left to rot. We have one, maybe two chances left to defeat these people peacefully.