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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 31, 2025

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In a breaking news story, apparently Trump has privately said Musk will step back from his role in the admin.

Of course, this has been claimed multiple times before somewhat falsely, so take it with a grain of salt! However, over the last couple of months it does seem that Elon has been wearing out his welcome in the admin, as many posters here predicted might happen.

I'm curious what exactly the problems have been internally - do you think it's just that Elon hasn't been able to defer to Trump enough? Or to put it more bluntly, to flatter Trump's ego?

Or is it more of an issue of a lack of cuts? I haven't been able to get good numbers, but I do think that the general 'vibe' is that Elon's cutting has been disappointing so far. Perhaps this is because of the coordinated media attack against him, but it also could just be that cutting the federal government is a beastly task. Personally I'm of the opinion he should have more time, but sadly that may not be the case.

The ostensible reason Elon is giving is apparently to focus more on business interests. This could be the case, as I'd imagine running multiple giant companies while also trying to head a govt. department is... basically impossible. That being said, it goes against a lot of the messaging Elon and Trump put together when they first started DOGE.

Either way, this turn of events, if it bears out, seems bad for team Trump as a whole, given how many eggs were put in the cutting government spending basket. Without Elon cutting hardcore, I fail to see how their admin can get even close to balancing the budget.

Already denied by Trump administration

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/musk-not-leaving-yet-wrapping-up-work-schedule-once-incredible-work-doge-complete-white-house

"This ‘scoop’ is garbage," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X on Wednesday. "Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete."