Critics of Elon Musk, tapped to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are starting to doubt his capabilities.
Speaking on POLITICO’s Tech podcast, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna expressed doubts about Musk’s ability to achieve the deep cuts he envisions, particularly in areas like defense spending.
“I think Elon may get frustrated fairly quickly,” Khanna said. “Let’s see if he can get defense cuts. My guess is that there are going to be a lot of people on that committee [who] are going to want even more defense spending. It’ll be a test.”
Musk disclosed in early 2021 that he has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which can make concentrating on mundane tasks difficult.
Khanna, though a Democrat, has found common ground on the issue of bloated military budgets.
He is a longtime advocate for reducing defense expenditures, and noted that while commissions like DOGE have historically struggled to achieve meaningful reforms, Musk’s direct influence with Trump could give the initiative a fighting chance.
“The real question here will be how effective he will be going after true waste and true abuse like you have in terms of defense contractors,” he remarked.
However, Khanna cautioned that Musk’s ambitious goals would face major hurdles in Congress, where both defense spending and entrenched bureaucracy enjoy bipartisan support.
Experts have pointed out that DOGE’s advisory role limits its ability to directly implement reforms, leaving the initiative reliant on Trump’s executive power and cooperation from Congress.
Even so, Musk’s close alliance with Trump and his advocacy throughout the election cycle suggest the President-elect may prioritize DOGE’s recommendations.
“Elon Musk is exactly the kind of innovative leader we need to tackle waste and bring common sense back to Washington,” said one Republican strategist.
Still, critics argue that the complexities of federal spending, especially in defense, make achieving sweeping reforms a daunting task.
Let me give this a try. Musk is thinking so far ahead and at a different level than apparently the ones who are questioning his attention span. Musk has to wait for normal people to catch up and often has to answer questions over again because not too many people are geniuses and really understand even his answers. So who is saying he has an attention problem? I would bet a literal herd of morons that he has to sometimes deal with. I am not suprised if other issues occupy his mind when he is dealing with slow mo folks and waiting for their next moronic questions!
On top of being almost “genius level” intellectually he is also a “realist”. Not many people with those character traits around anymore. I say “give him free reign and see what he comes up with”.
Stick a question in perplexity.ai, ChatGPT, and ask about notable historical figures with “attention deficit.” Use that term.
You will find people like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Walt Disney.
The flip side of “attention deficit” is “mental agility.” If someone tries to achieve a mainstream adult task and just keeps failing, that’s a problem. If a person jumps from one thing to another, innovating and creating vastly more successes than failures, where’s the problem.