As DOGE descends into disaster, Elon Musk suddenly (and predictably) sheds responsibility for the agency

After elbowing his way into the heart of American governance and orchestrating a job massacre, Elon Musk now proudly flaunts his art of “dodge.”

Thanks to the unstoppable duo of Donald Trump and Musk — the Batman and Robin of economic destruction — we’re now facing layoffs on a scale not seen since the Great Recession in 2009. According to Challenger’s latest report, a whopping 62,242 federal workers were laid off across 17 different agencies in just the first two months of the year alone. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a 41,311 percent increase from the previous year, 2024. I didn’t even know percentages went that high, to be honest.

Musk has privately acknowledged he’s made some massive missteps, and that he “can’t bat a thousand all the time."

But when Musk misses a swing, people lose their livelihoods. https://t.co/tnHVimdATj

— The New Republic (@newrepublic) March 6, 2025

Massive layoffs don’t just affect those unlucky enough to get pink slips; unemployment is contagious. These are people — people with families, mortgages, student loans, and health insurance premiums. Suddenly, they stop shopping at local businesses, stop paying for daycare, cancel gym memberships, and postpone buying cars and homes. Local restaurants and stores lose customers, revenue drops, and suddenly that cute little deli around the corner is laying people off too. It’s the circle of economic death, and we have Musk and his DOGE to thank for kicking it off.

DOGE itself seems to be spiraling downward with more than 20 DOGE staffers resigning in protest and sheer exhaustion from working for Musk. But the billionaire is now claiming zero responsibility for this disaster. In a private meeting with GOP lawmakers, Captain Musk claimed that the layoffs weren’t DOGE’s fault. Nope, according to him, it’s the agency heads who decided to fire all those workers. DOGE, he says, just made “recommendations.”

It gets better, though. According to Politico, Musk privately admitted to lawmakers that he’s made massive whoopsies, reportedly shrugging with a casual, “Can’t bat a thousand all the time.” Well, Elon, this isn’t baseball. One of those “whoopsies” involved mistakenly firing employees in the nuclear energy department. You know, the people responsible for managing America’s nuclear energy programs. No big deal, right?

NEW: @doge deletes $4 billion more in savings from its "wall of receipts."

This is the second time in a week that Elon Musk's error-plagued group has removed huge cuts that it celebrated from cancelled contracts.

This time, 5 of 7 biggest savings vanished overnight.…

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) March 3, 2025

Meanwhile, even Trump’s own Office of Personnel Management had to issue a memo clarifying that agencies didn’t actually need to obey DOGE’s reckless firing orders. But mistakes can’t always be “corrected.” This isn’t SpaceX where you can crash another rocket and call it a “learning experience.”