Candidate Donald Trump rode a wave of dissatisfaction with inflation and the state of the economy to another win in the 2024 presidential election.
As the challenger, Trump raised alarms about the state of the economy in the short term and the country’s long-term outlook if the budget deficit keeps growing.
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Americans overwhelmingly trusted Trump to handle the economy better than Harris, leading him to a narrow victory that marked the first time in a generation that a Republican won the popular vote.
But a non-partisan analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget a month before the election suggested that while Harris’ economic plan would increase national debt by $3.5 trillion over 10 years, Trump’s plan would increase the national debt by between $7.5 trillion and $15.2 trillion over the same period.
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The reason for the discrepancy was tariffs. The analysis stated that if Trump’s tariffs brought in less than expected, and there were higher costs for his other policy priorities like mass deportations and tax breaks, then the budget deficit could balloon.
However, if Trump’s tariffs raised $4.3 trillion and there were no costs tied to deportations, then Trump’s plan could only increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
Trump also promised that the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, would play a critical role in balancing the budget.
Elon Musk’s comanies were facing a lot of fines before he joined Trump’s administration.
Image source: Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
DOGE cuts have disproportionately benefited Elon Musk, Democrats say
DOGE’s government cuts have largely benefited Elon Musk and his business empire, according to a Congressional report from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn).
“The through line connecting many of Mr. Musk’s decisions appears to be self-enrichment and avoiding what he perceives as obstacles to advancing his interests. Mr. Musk’s position may allow him to evade oversight, derail investigations, and make litigation disappear whenever he so chooses,” the report says.
The subcommittee report estimates that Elon Musk and his companies, Tesla, The Boring Company, xAI, SpaceX, and Neuralink, faced at least $2.37 billion in potential liability at the start of the year.
This includes $1.19 billion in potential liability for “Tesla’s allegedly false or misleading statements about its autopilot and full self-driving features.”
The report also cites 25 federal investigations or regulatory matters to which Musk’s companies were subject before Trump took office on January 20.
The report claims Musk’s status as a “senior advisor to the President” shields him from the scrutiny that an official cabinet member vetted by Congress would receive.
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“Even before President Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Musk succeeded in pressuring the head of the Federal Aviation Administration — who had the temerity to clash with him— to step down. Since then, the Administration has attempted to eliminate one of his company’s key regulators, remove decision-makers at another, and install ideologues throughout the government,” the report claims.
It is important to note the the subcommittee does not accuse Musk of doing anything illegal.
Is DOGE doing its job, cutting spending?
In the past Musk has claimed that DOGE would save taxpayers as much as $2 trillion, but that number has been revised downward several times.
During the March State of the Union address, President Donald Trump spent five minutes praising the work DOGE had already done, including finding $22 billion in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, and money to make frogs transgender.
Trump even claimed that DOGE had already found “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud” as Musk basked in his second standing ovation of the night.
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However, Musk has severely lowered his sights since then. DOGE now aims for just $150 billion in savings by fiscal 2026, short of the hundreds of billions Trump claimed he saved.
Federal debt held by taxpayers is now over $28 trillion, and the CRFB notes that the interest payments on that debt are now higher than what the company spends on defense annually.
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