Episode 16: The Aftermath: Fallout from Musk’s Government Takeover

Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative—the Department of Government Efficiency—was sold as a revolution in streamlined governance. But in the wake of its rollout, America is facing a whirlwind of legal battles, shattered institutions, and deepening national division.

In Part Four of our series, we trace the real-world consequences of Musk’s rise inside the Trump administration. What began as a tech-driven experiment in "cutting waste" has become a blueprint for privatized power, deregulation at scale, and authoritarian overreach cloaked in the language of innovation.

Bella Goode unpacks the blowback, asking: What did DOGE break—and can it be undone?

In this episode:

• Legal Mayhem – The wave of lawsuits from whistleblowers, watchdogs, and state attorneys general challenging DOGE’s legality.
• Civil Service Collapse – How Musk’s rapid dismantling of agencies and firings of career public servants have left critical systems in disarray.
• Privatized Governance – From AI-driven decisions to corporate contractors replacing regulators—has the U.S. government been hollowed out?
• Public Backlash and Protests – Growing resistance from civil society, unions, and grassroots movements fighting to reclaim democratic norms.
• Media Spin and Musk’s Defenders – How right-wing influencers and Musk allies are rebranding the chaos as “bold reform.”
• Who’s Really in Charge? – With Trump distracted by legal woes, has Musk become the de facto ruler of the administrative state?

This episode examines the crisis moment we’re now living in—when the bold promises of DOGE collide with constitutional limits, public accountability, and democratic survival.

Next Episode

🔜 Episode 17 – Elon Musk’s World Stage: Power, Profit, and Geopolitical Fallout

In the final installment of our five-part Musk series, we follow the money, the influence, and the global consequences. How is Musk reshaping U.S. foreign policy? What are his true motivations? And what lasting damage—or transformation—has his rise to power caused across the world stage?

Transcript

Bella Goode  00:04

Hey, welcome to Surviving Trump. I'm Bella Goode. Last episode, we explored how Elon Musk took control of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a powerful shadow agency embedded deep within the federal government. What began as a so called Efficiency Initiative has quickly become something else entirely. It's been become a wrecking ball aimed at the most basic machinery of American life. This week, we look at the aftermath, the fallout from the upheaval he has created. 

DOGE was never about reform, it was about control. It still is. It wasn't about smarter government. It's about smaller, weaker and more obedient government. What Musk launched wasn't a surgical operation. It was a blunt force attack, fast, sweeping and ruthless. Take the Treasury Department, this is the agency that handles the government's money, things like social security payments, veterans benefits and student loans. When DOGE comes in, they fire huge numbers of IT staff and financial experts, almost overnight, with few left to keep systems running, everything freezes. What's at risk, millions of people waiting for their security checks, veterans waiting for the benefits they're counting on, student loan payments. 

Treasury workers warn that this could happen, but DOGE ignores them and calls them dead weight. And then there's the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration. Goes fired over 1000 air traffic controllers without a clear plan. Airports across the country were thrown into chaos. Planes were delayed, flights were rerouted. Some pilots even reported near misses in the sky before the control towers- because the control towers didn't have enough staff, major airports like Atlanta and Chicago had to cancel hundreds of flights. 

One experienced pilot said, "we're back to 1981," comparing it to when Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers. But this time, there's no backup plan. It gets scarier when you look at what's happened to our Nuclear Safety Agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration. DOGE cuts teams that inspect and maintain our nuclear weapons. That means that some of the most dangerous weapons on Earth weren't being checked or serviced. 

Even national security experts who normally support Trump raised alarms. But Musk's team call it fear mongering, and kept pushing forward. Meanwhile, just as a dangerous new strain of bird flu started spreading in the US, DOGE laid off more than 1000 scientists at the CDC. That included disease trackers, lab workers, emergency responders. States that rely on the CDC for help were suddenly on their own. Labs couldn't share information. 

Public Health alerts were delayed or missed entirely. In one heartbreaking moment, a CDC worker live streamed her last day and said the next pandemic is going to hit and the federal government won't be ready, and she's probably right. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency designed to protect regular people from scams and shady banks, was shut down in a single day. DOGE fired everyone and canceled investigations, including one looking into Tesla's own financing division. 

Musk celebrated on social media saying, well, he said, C, F, P B R, I, P, rest in peace. Not funny. DOGE also shut down USAID, which handles us humanitarian aid around the world. Musk claimed that the agency was part of a globalist scam, and just like that, it was gone. That meant food shipments didn't arrive. Disaster relief programs were canceled, and the US basically disappeared from the global stage. A United Nations official said China and Russia are moving into the vacuum. In other words, America walked off the field, and our rivals rushed in to take our place. And here's something truly disturbing many of these layoffs, they weren't decided by humans at all. DOGE used artificial intelligence to generate lists of government jobs to cut. 

These algorithms didn't know the difference between someone pushing paper and someone monitoring our nuclear stockpile or tracking a deadly virus. They just looked at titles and salaries and hit delete. That's how you end up cutting vital health programs or weather teams just before disaster strikes. So no, this isn't about efficiency, this is about reckless decisions made fast with no care for the damage left behind. You know, the destruction caused by the DOGE group isn't just about broken systems or missing payments. It's about real people getting hurt, people who had nothing to do with politics, who were just trying to live their lives. Here's an example involving social security. 

DOGE wanted to shut down the phone support for people applying for retirement and disability benefits. After a public backlash, they backed off, sort of. Instead, they rolled out a new rule, saying that people now have to prove their identity, either online or in person. For a lot of Americans, that's impossible. Many elderly or disabled people don't have internet access. Others live far from a social security office or can't physically get there. So this policy, while it might sound neutral on paper, effectively cuts people off from the help that they need to survive. And here's the thing, they're doing it under the excuse of fighting fraud, but leaked audio from inside the Social Security Administration shows that even the people running it know that fraud isn't the real problem. The truth, DOGE is trying to make Elon Musk look legitimate. 

Last month, Musk claimed that millions of dead people were still getting Social Security checks. He was wrong, but instead of admitting their mistake, he pushed his cruel policy to make it look like he was right. And there's more suffering, and not just in the Social Security Administration. Take Molly Anderson, a pregnant park ranger working at Yellowstone. She was living in government housing, like many Park workers do, but when DOGE laid off her entire department without warning, she lost her job and her home within 24 hours, no notice, no support. I just kept thinking, "Where am I supposed to have my baby?" she told reporters. 

And then there's Tom Jenkins, an Army veteran who relies on the VA for PTSD treatment. After DOGE cuts his regular counseling sessions were canceled. "They say they support the troops", Tom said, "but when you actually need help, they're nowhere to be found." And farmers in places like Iowa and Missouri suddenly lost access to USDA assistance. That meant no money for seeds, no crop insurance, no farm repairs, some had to abandon planting altogether. Others started laying off workers. These aren't huge corporations. These are just family farms, generational work wiped out in a month. 

Construction crews in small towns woke up to find out their federal road and bridge projects had been canceled. These were jobs people counted on projects that supported the entire community. Workers were sent home with no idea when or if the work would return. In rural America, where Trump had strong support, the reality is sinking in. People who once cheered that drain the swamp message are now realizing that they're the ones being drained; retirees, truckers, small business owners, farmers, all asking the same question, where did the help go? And over at the National Weather Service, hundreds of meteorologists have just been laid off, just as tornado season starts, after a judge ordered some of them reinstated. DOGE refused to let them go back to work. Instead, they were put on paid leave, leaving critical forecasting positions empty. This is just unfathomable. 

Days later, a massive storm tore through the Midwest and the South, killing at least 42 people. Homes were flattened, families were displaced. Emergency Alerts did go out, but only thanks to local offices that were barely hanging on. Experts say that if these cuts keep going, we won't be so lucky next time. In the wildest part, DOGE is now spending more money trying to rehire some of these people that they laid off. Background checks, training, security clearances, all of that has to be redone. So this whole plan to save money is now costing taxpayers more than if they had done nothing at all. And again, I might have mentioned this before. A lot of this is being driven by AI, artificial intelligence systems that are deciding who to fire based on job titles and salary costs. 

No one has stopped to ask, what does a person actually do? That's how we ended up losing scientists who track pandemics, forecasters who warn about tornados and safety inspectors who protect our food and water. These aren't just bureaucrats. They're real people doing real work that keeps America running. You might be wondering, so what's being done about this upheaval? Who's dealing with DOGE? Well, let's start by talking about the courts. Starting in the courts where the legal challenges against DOGE are intensifying. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, is confronting a series of high profile lawsuits challenging its aggressive restructuring of federal agencies and access to sensitive data. 

Notable legal actions include, for example, unconstitutional dismantling of USAID, a coalition of USAID employees and contractors filed a lawsuit alleging that DOGE's efforts to dismantle the agency violated the Constitution's appointments clause. They argued that Musk and his team exercised sufficient government authority without proper Senate confirmation. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction, stating that the actions likely overstepped constitutional boundaries, and ordered the restoration of USAID operations that might not have happened yet. Privacy Act violations, social security data access. The Social Security Administration faced legal challenges after granting DOGE access to personnel data of millions of Americans. 

Plaintiffs have argued this access violates the privacy act of 1974 a federal judge agreed issuing a temporary restraining order blocking doses access and mandating the deletion of any improperly obtained data. This ruling underscored concerns about unauthorized access to sensitive information. And in the treasury, unauthorized Treasury payment systems access, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is called EPIC and other advocacy groups have sued to block DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's payment systems, which dispersed trillions annually, including Social Security benefits and government salaries. The lawsuit contends that DOGE's access lacks proper authorization and poses risks to financial security. We're hearing this over and over again. The Freedom of Information Act, transparency organizations such as American Oversight have filed lawsuits to compel doze to release internal records, arguing that the agency's operations lacks transparency and evades federal oversights laws. 

These suits aim to shed light on what the hell DOGE is doing. Actually, these suits aim to shed light on DOGE's decision making processes and to ensure accountability. Unions representing federal employees have initiated legal actions against DOGE. Deferred Resignation, apparently, there's a program called Deferred Resignation, which offered buyouts to the federal workers. The unions argue that this program violates labor laws and bypasses negotiated agreements. While some courts have temporarily blocked these actions. Others have allowed them to proceed, reflecting the contentious nature of DOGE's workforce policies. These legal challenges highlight the escalating tensions between DOGE reform initiatives and established legal and constitutional frameworks. The outcomes of these cases will significantly influence the future scope and authority of DOGE's operations. 

You might also wonder, where's Congress in this whole thing, and what the hell are they doing? Well, here's a wild guess. The GOP is caught up between loyalty and liability. Congressional Republicans are deeply divided over how to respond to the DOGE mess. The MAGA wing, now dominant in the GOP caucus, has gone into full defense mode, framing DOGE as the grassroots digital economy unfairly being targeted by liberal elites and the Deep State. House Freedom Caucus members have even called for hearings into what they describe as judicial overreach, accusing federal courts of blocking DOGE reforms at the behest of the liberal interest groups. 

Rather than scrutinizing DOGE itself or framing the legal resistance as a partisan assault on innovation and executive authority. Speaker Byron Donalds has made only vague public comments emphasizing innovation and economic freedom, while quietly blocking any bipartisan investigations. Committees that should be scrutinizing the financial and political implications of DOGE, like the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committee are instead hosting crypto friendly round tables that sidestep the more dangerous political dimensions of the crisis. Behind the scenes, the pressure is mounting. Republican House members returning to their districts are getting hammered at attempted town halls, if they hold them at all. 

Several have been shouted down while trying to defend Elon Musk or downplay those role in government overreach. In Wyoming, Representative Harriet Hageman faced a particularly hostile crowd in Cheyenne where constituents, many of them retired federal workers and ranchers, definitely Republicans, definitely dependent on USDA programs demanded answers about DOGE's role in gutting agencies and cutting off essential services. When one attendee pressed her on Musk's influence over public policy, Hageman snapped, "you're all obsessed with the federal government." The remark only intensified the crowd's anger with some shouting back that "the federal government is how we survive out here." Her attempts to shift blame to liberal bureaucrats were met with boos and walkouts. 

Other Republicans have stopped doing public events altogether, retreating to controlled appearances or heavily moderated virtual updates. The grassroots anger, particularly amongst older voters and civil servants who have lost benefits or seen their agencies dismantled, it's boiling over. Sensing the vacuum, Democrats are moving in aggressively. Local Democratic officials and challengers are hosting public forums and listening sessions in traditionally read districts using the DOGE chaos as proof that Republicans have lost control of their own agenda. They're connecting the dots between crypto corruption, government dysfunction and MAGA authoritarianism and finding an audience. 

A smaller block of traditional conservatives, including senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins have expressed concern about DOGE's role in destabilizing markets and spreading disinformation, but they're largely sidelined. So far they failed to rally enough GOP support for any real hearings or any meaningful check on DOGE's power. Democrats have introduced legislation to increase transparency around political donations and tighten the oversight of digital assets, but those efforts are stalled in the Republican controlled House. At best, Congress is spinning its wheels, at worst, it's serving as a co-conspirator in those expanded grip on American power. 

In the court of public opinion, it's fractured, it's furious, and it's mobilizing. Across the country. The DOGE upheaval has become a litmus test for how Americans view power, freedom and the future of the government. The reaction has been anything but unified, but one thing is clear, people are paying attention. Polling shows a stark divide. Roughly 60% of Americans in blue and swing states view DOGE as a threat to democratic institutions, with strong majorities supporting investigations into its legality and political influence. Among independents concern is growing. Many say DOGE represents corporate overreach under the guise of efficiency, and nearly half say they they're reconsidering how they vote in 2026 based on how their representatives handle the fallout. 

But in Trump's strongholds, the messaging war is playing out differently. There, DOGE is seen by many as a patriotic innovation, an overdue takedown of a bloated bureaucracy. Right wing influencers and pro MAGA media outlets have rallied behind Musk portraying him as a crusader against the swamp. Talk radio and viral tiktoks blame lazy bureaucrats, bureaucrats and globalist NGOs for the disruption and not DOGE itself. At the grassroots level, anger is boiling over, but not always in the direction politicians expect. In rural communities, particularly states like Wyoming, Utah, Arkansas, federal job losses and service disruptions are hitting hard. Even some lifelong Republicans are starting to question whether the MAGA movement has gone too far. 

As one farmer in western Kansas told a local station, "I voted for Trump. I didn't vote to lose my crop insurance and have my USDA rep replaced with an AI chat bot." In blue cities, public protests have begun to target DOGE directly. Demonstrators are calling for full defunding of the department and Musk's removal from government influence. College campuses and union halls are hosting teach-ins on crypto corruption and digital authoritarianism, trying to connect the dots between DOGE privatization and political control. The same time social media is. Flooded with memes, testimonies and misinformation, conspiracy theories claiming DOGE is secretly dismantling the deep state from within are spreading fast, often contradicting each other, but still feeding the chaos. 

For many Americans, truth is less important than which narrative confirms their fears. DOGE has become a symbol, a scapegoat and a call to action, depending upon who you ask, and while the courts in Congress struggle to respond, the public is already choosing sides. As the chaos surrounds DOGE continues to unfold, public anger has begun to zero in on Elon himself, not just as the architect of the Department of government efficiency, but as a symbol of an unelected, unaccountable power in the post trump state. 

And nowhere is the backlash more visible than in the fate of Musk's flagship company, Tesla. Tesla showrooms and vehicles have become lightning rods for protests. Demonstrators have surrounded dealerships with signs reading, nobody voted for Elon Musk. And this is not efficiency, it's authoritarianism. Vandals have graffitied Tesla with swastikas and Anti Fascist slogans. At least two incidences, Molotov cocktails were thrown at Tesla service centers. One protester told a local station, "if you can't reach the billionaire, you can reach his brand." That's rather clever. The political reaction has been swift and extreme. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the vandalism of Tesla's domestic terrorism. 

President Donald Trump escalated even further, claiming that the attacks on Tesla products were far more serious than the January 6 2021, assault on the Capitol. I kid you not, he actually said that. Trump, who previously issued blanket pardons for Capitol rioters, including those convicted of beating police officers took truth social to post. "I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20 year jail sentences for what they're doing to Elon Musk and Tesla, perhaps they should serve time in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently, famous for such lovely conditions." Meanwhile, Trump is going out of his way to try to salvage the Tesla brand. 

In March, he held a bizarre sales event on the White House lawn, flanked by two electric vehicles and MAGA adorned Tesla employees, pitching the company as the only American car that fights for freedom. Days later, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick used a segment on Fox News to urge viewers to buy Tesla stock while it's still a steal, the plug and apparent violation of federal ethics rules did little to stop Tesla's ongoing stock slide financial strain, though quite possibly, is real. Musk's net worth is still immense, but roughly 58% of his wealth is tied up in Tesla stock, and that stock is under pressure from all sides. Consumers in key markets are boycotting the brand. 

Union backed pension funds are pulling investments, and analysts warn that Tesla's future is becoming inseparable from Musk's political liabilities, and even inside the company, cracks are showing. Board Chair Robyn Denholm recently sold a significant portion of her Tesla shares, a move seen by many as a quiet vote of no confidence. Investor pressure is mounting. Long time Tesla backer Ross Gerber has publicly called for Musk to step down as CEO, saying that Tesla needs a leader who is focused on cars, not coups. Musk's response defiant as ever, he told employees to hang on to your stock and suggested that the protests are being orchestrated by entrenched bureaucrats and deep state holdouts, but even some local shareholders are starting to question the once unthinkable. Is Elon Musk becoming a liability? 

And while Tesla takes hits on the ground, Musk is fighting the war online, weaponizing X, his social media platform, to stoke division and retaliate against critics. Every day, Musk posts a barrage of memes and conspiracy theories, from claims that the federal judiciary is compromised by saboteurs to veiled threats against journalists, whistleblowers and even judges overseeing DOGE related cases. He's elevated far right influencers reposted edited videos that cast protesters as terrorists and used the platform to amplify calls for mass arrests and retribution. X has become more. Than just a megaphone. It's Musk's information warfare hub. 

His posts often coincide with coordinated harassment campaigns against individuals critical of DOGE or Tesla. Government employees who've testified against DOGE have found themselves doxxed and smeared by anonymous accounts within hours of musk highlighting their names, verified MAGA aligned personalities are being given algorithmic boosts while watchdog groups and investigative reporters report sudden throttling or bans. In Musk's hands X is not social media. It's a battlefield, and one that he controls, and for millions of America caught in the crossfire of the DOGE revolution, the lines between propaganda, policy and personal retaliation have never been more dangerously blurred. Oh well, the DOGE upheaval isn't a one time event. It's the beginning of a slow burning bomb engineered not just by Elon Musk, but by an entire movement committed to reshaping the government in its own image. 

Now the aftershocks are everywhere, in the courts, where lawsuits are piling up faster than they can be heard, in Congress, where a fractured GOP is too afraid, too complicit to intervene, on the streets, where Teslas are burning and protesters are starting to clash with the state, and online, where the battlefield is lit by memes, threats and misinformation. Musk, once seen as the technocrat or even a futurist has revealed himself as something else entirely, a power broker operating outside of democratic guard rails, backed by a political machine willing to rewrite the rules in real time, and the public is responding with rage, with fear, with resistance. In blue states, legal teams are working overtime in red states, voters are starting to ask uncomfortable questions, and across the political spectrum, a growing number of Americans are realizing that DOGE wasn't just about efficiency, it was about control. 

So where does it leave us? DOGE is still standing, Musk is still tweeting and Trump's inner circle is still spinning the chaos victory, but beneath the surface, cracks are deepening and trust in institutions, in the idea that any of this is sustainable. 

Our next episode covers yet another dimension of Elon Musk; it's his role in world politics. Before abandoning the mic, I have two favors to ask. Join the conversation. The transcript and links for this episode are available, so let's talk. Drop a comment, some fan mail, maybe. Ask a question, push back on ideas. This isn't just a podcast. It's a community for you and me. Tell me what you think love the show. Let me know. Have a critique. I want to know that too. Should I keep going shift gears? Your feedback shapes what comes next. 

And hey, follow me on Blue Sky. Let's keep the conversation going. And on that note, I leave you with some humor from Borowitz, the comedian. See here Dateline Washington, demonstrating his seriousness about declaring war on Canada, Donald J Trump has obtained a medical note from his new podiatrist exempting him from military service. The podiatrist, Dr Momet Mehmet Oz indicated that in the note that a Vietnam War era issue involving bone spurs would prevent Trump from participating in an invasion of America's northern neighbor. "President Trump's bone spurs would become dangerously inflamed if exposed to the Canadian frozen tundra," Oz wrote. "If he decides to put boots on the ground, his feet should not be in those boots." And with that said, it's Bella Goode signing off. Have a good day. Stay in the fight.