How Elon Musk's Takeover Of X Compares To What He's Doing With DOGE

Since joining the Trump administration, Elon Musk's name seems to a permanent fixture in the news. This is largely because the billionaire, entrepreneur, and now political figure has been causing quite the uproar in his attempts to reduce supposedly wasteful government spending through his Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. While the supposed goal of DOGE is to reduce the federal government's budget by 30%, – Musk's false statements about things like Social Security have left many concerned with what those reductions might look like.

That said, this isn't the first time Musk has used the strategies he's now applying with DOGE. In fact, his current actions largely resemble the playbook he followed in his takeover of the social media platform Twitter (which has since been rebranded as X) in 2022. For example, drastic cost-cutting measures and the centralization of influence — both of which have raised numerous ethical concerns — have been at the center of both his actions at DOGE and X. In this way, understanding the parallels between Musk's takeover of X can help paint a picture of what to expect from his involvement in DOGE going forward.

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, he immediately fired 80% of the company's then workforce. He reportedly did this after evaluating staffers' value for money and requiring them to submit weekly updates of their accomplishments. Musk has already similarly implemented widespread layoffs — this time of Federal employees — as well as weekly requests from workers through DOGE. According to The New York Time's official federal jobs cut tally, as of April 1, 2025 at least 56,290 federal employees have been confirmed as cut, with this number expected to increase as time goes on. Musk has even gone so far as to attempt to dismantle entire government agencies, such as USAID.

While Musk's purported goal in implementing these layoffs is to save the federal government $2 trillion dollars annually, the reality might have more to do with control and a centralization of influence. For example, when Musk didn't like the way Twitter was being run, he stepped in and bought the entire company in 2022 so that he could run it in a way he deemed was superior. Similarly, when Musk didn't like how the government was spending money, he joined Trump in order to take a hands-on approach in correcting it.

Since heading up DOGE, numerous ethical concerns have been raised about Musk's actions. Beyond the fact that the world's richest man is now directly meddling in government affairs despite not being elected or even vetted by Congress, there are also growing concerns about Musk's efforts to privatize different branches of the federal government. This privatization could lead to more expensive services, could deteriorate the quality of the services provided, or could even limit access to services altogether. Case in point, the fact that DOGE cuts have already closed dozens of Social Security offices around the country.

Unfortunately, raising ethical concerns is nothing new to Musk. After his Twitter takeover, Musk unbanned several controversial accounts on the platform — despite telling concerned parties like advertisers that he would do the opposite. It's worth noting that these un-banned accounts were mainly focused on spreading conspiracy theories and/or hateful messaging. This further fueled concerns about the dangers of multi-billionaires owning media companies like X, as media owners can easily shape platforms and content to their personal political beliefs. With that said, Musk's more recent DOGE controversies are now threatening to jeopardize his other major business, Tesla.