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Speaker 1: Already, and this is the daily This is the Daily.

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Speaker 1: Ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Daily OS. It's Monday, the seventeenth of February.

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Speaker 2: I'm Billy, I'm Zara.

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Speaker 1: Last week you may have seen the press conference Elon

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Speaker 1: Musk held in the White House next to US President

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump and also his son X. If you saw

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Speaker 1: that on your TikTok feeds and you were wondering what

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Speaker 1: that was all about, you have come to the right place.

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Speaker 1: It's been nearly one month since Trump was inaugurated and

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk commenced his official role as part of the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration. We now know a little more about what

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Speaker 1: Mask's new government advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency,

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Speaker 1: will look like, so we thought it would be the

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Speaker 1: perfect time to explain Elon Musk's role in the Trump administration.

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Speaker 2: Billy, there are very few people who compete with Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump for the number of headlines they can get in

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Speaker 2: a week. But I do believe that Elon Musk is

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Speaker 2: probably a very close second, and so I don't think

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Speaker 2: that he necessarily needs a full introduction. But for anyone

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Speaker 2: that might not be overly familiar, what do we need

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Speaker 2: to know about Elon Musk.

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Speaker 1: So he is the richest person in the world. He's

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Speaker 1: number one, above Bill Gates, above Mark Zuckerberg, number one

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Speaker 1: richest person in the world, Zara. Can you guess how

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Speaker 1: much he is worth?

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Speaker 2: He's net worth three hundred billion.

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Speaker 1: Dollars pretty close, very close. So according to the latest

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Speaker 1: figure from Forbes, he is worth three hundred and ninety

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Speaker 1: four billion US credible amount dollars, an insane amount of money.

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Speaker 1: Can you imagine what that is in Australian dollars?

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Speaker 2: A lot?

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Speaker 1: Definitely what it's nearly well in US dollars at least

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Speaker 1: it is nearly half a trillion US dollars.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Now, Musk was born in South Africa and he is

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Speaker 1: the co founder of SpaceX, which is a spacecraft manufacturer.

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Speaker 1: He was also a key early contributor to the electronic

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Speaker 1: payment platform PayPal, and he is also the CEO of

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Speaker 1: electric vehicle company Tesla. Now, if that didn't keep him

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Speaker 1: busy enough, I simply don't know how there are enough

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Speaker 1: hours in the day to do all of that. But

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Speaker 1: he also in twenty twenty two, as I'm sure many

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Speaker 1: of us remember, he bought Twitter for forty four billion dollars,

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Speaker 1: which he has since renamed to.

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Speaker 2: X, not to be confused with his child Yes, also

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Speaker 2: named X. Yes.

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Speaker 1: He also co founded a financial services company in like

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Speaker 1: the nineteen nineties that was called X. There you go,

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Speaker 1: big fan of the letter X.

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Speaker 3: Yep.

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Speaker 1: Now, fun fact, he actually also co founded open ai,

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Speaker 1: which is the maker of chatchpt but he left that

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Speaker 1: board in twenty eighteen, and I thought I would include

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Speaker 1: that because just last week he put in a bid

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Speaker 1: to buy open ai for ninety seven billion dollars but

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Speaker 1: he was rejected.

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Speaker 2: Incredibly small circle of tech bros there, and seemingly Elon

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Speaker 2: Musk has been involved with essentially every major technology disruptor

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Speaker 2: across the board. It's quite incredible when you hear that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a very successful businessman.

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Speaker 2: Hence probably why he's the richest in the world. But

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Speaker 2: there you go. Okay, So putting aside the technology contribution

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Speaker 2: for a moment now, because the reason that Musk is

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Speaker 2: in the headline so often is more recently about his

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Speaker 2: foray into politics. I guess my first question is has

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Speaker 2: he always been as involved in politics as we understand

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Speaker 2: him to be today? Not at all?

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Speaker 1: And interestingly, he also hasn't always been a Donald Trump supporter.

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Speaker 1: He has through the years donated to both the Democrats

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Speaker 1: and the Republican Party, which are the two major parties

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Speaker 1: in the US, So he's kind of dabbled in both,

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Speaker 1: which is quite.

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Speaker 2: A common thing for wealthier, more influential people to do

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Speaker 2: because it means that you've kind of got the ear

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Speaker 2: of whichever government takes office.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, because you're often trying to kind of win their edgebots, Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 1: But it's only recently that he has gone really hard

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Speaker 1: on the Republican Party, or more specifically Donald Trump. Because

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Speaker 1: actually in twenty sixteen, when Donald Trump was running against

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Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton, Elon Musk supported Hillary Clinton. But that was

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Speaker 1: nearly nine years ago now, and clearly he has gone

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Speaker 1: on a journey since then.

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Speaker 2: And one way to put it, Yeah, and in the twenty.

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Speaker 1: Twenty four election, he was obviously very vocal in his

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Speaker 1: endorsement and support of Trump, which led him to being

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Speaker 1: announced as the leader of a new government advisory body

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Speaker 1: created by Trump called the Department of Government Efficiency also

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Speaker 1: known as DOGE. Don't be fooled by its name. Despite

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Speaker 1: it being called a department, it's not. It's just an

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Speaker 1: advisory body, and I mentioned the name that it's more

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Speaker 1: commonly referred to as, which is Doge, and that is

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Speaker 1: of course a reference to a cryptocurrency called doge yea. Now,

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Speaker 1: Musk was initially co leading this with biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswami,

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Speaker 1: but then he actually quit just hours after Trump became president,

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Speaker 1: and there were reports that it was because of a

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Speaker 1: clash between himself and Elon Musk, but nothing was confirmed,

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Speaker 1: although you know, given the fact that he did quit,

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Speaker 1: would suggest that something went wrong. And now Musk is

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Speaker 1: the sole leader of that advisory body.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So Elon Musk is the sole leader of this

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Speaker 2: new department otherwise known as DOGE. And it's both a

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Speaker 2: new role and a new advisory group. Per Se, what

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Speaker 2: is its purpose? What is it designed to actually do?

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Speaker 2: I guess what is Elon Musk's job here?

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Speaker 1: So when it was first announced, Trump said that the

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Speaker 1: department's goal was to quote slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures,

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Speaker 1: and restructure federal agencies. So essentially, the goal is to

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Speaker 1: significantly cut costs to the federal budget and to get

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Speaker 1: rid of wasteful spending. They deem to be wasteful spending.

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Speaker 1: So to give you contexts, the US is in more

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Speaker 1: than thirty trillion dollars of debt and the doge's aim

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Speaker 1: is to reduce that debt significantly by reducing the government's spending.

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Speaker 1: And Mask says that if he doesn't do that, or

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Speaker 1: if Doge doesn't do that, the country will go bankrupt.

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Speaker 1: So he's saying this isn't an option, this is absolutely

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Speaker 1: necessary and important.

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Speaker 2: Just I guess, for context to note that a majority

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Speaker 2: of countries across the world do have debt.

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Speaker 1: A lot large large majority, if not every country. But

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Speaker 1: that sounds like an explain it for another day about

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Speaker 1: the high countries are all in debt. But back to

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Speaker 1: this now. Mask initially said that he would be able

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Speaker 1: to save about two trillion dollars a year, which represents

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Speaker 1: about thirty percent of the US government's total spend in

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Speaker 1: a year. Since he initially said that two trillion dollar figure,

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Speaker 1: he has said that maybe that was a bit ambitious

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Speaker 1: and they won't actually be able to reach that, but

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Speaker 1: it remains the goal to cut two trillion dollars of

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Speaker 1: spending a strategy goal. Yeah, So, just to put it

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Speaker 1: really simply, again, Elon Musk's entire role in the White

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Speaker 1: House is to cut spending.

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Speaker 2: Okay, and how does Elon Musk plan to do that?

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Speaker 1: So there's several different ways. I'm just going to go

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Speaker 1: through a couple of them that have kind of gained

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Speaker 1: the most attention. One way is by significantly reducing the

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Speaker 1: federal workforce, also known as the public service, which is

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Speaker 1: the country's largest employer. So this would mean cutting spending

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Speaker 1: in different departments. Think of things like the Department of Education,

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Speaker 1: the Department of Health, those kinds of things, and they

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Speaker 1: want to cut jobs in those departments. So just last week,

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Speaker 1: Trump signed an executive order directing agency officials to plan

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Speaker 1: for quote, large scale reductions in their workforces. And it

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Speaker 1: also stated that each agency quote higher no more than

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Speaker 1: one employee for every four employees that part. So that's

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Speaker 1: basically a hiring freeze for the most part. And they're

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Speaker 1: saying you cannot hire anyone else in any of the

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Speaker 1: agencies unless you get rid of four people who are

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Speaker 1: already in the room. And they have also said that

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Speaker 1: no hiring decisions can be made without consultation with a

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Speaker 1: DOGE team lead. So this is incredible oversight over every

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Speaker 1: single hiring and firing that happens in every single government

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Speaker 1: agency in the US. And for context, it was right

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Speaker 1: after Trump signed this executive order that he and Masks

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Speaker 1: did a press conference on the decision, and he said

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Speaker 1: that they have found billions of dollars of waste happening

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Speaker 1: in the US government's budgets. And just days after that happened,

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Speaker 1: it was reported that termination emails had started being sent

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Speaker 1: out to government workers, mostly those who are still on probation.

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Speaker 1: Now that alone could affect hundreds of thousands of workers,

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Speaker 1: but it's expected to be only the beginning of large

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Speaker 1: scale reduction.

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Speaker 2: It's really interesting. I lived in DC and so I've

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Speaker 2: got quite a few friends who are still there, and

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Speaker 2: on Instagram I saw a number of them talking about

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Speaker 2: the fact that they'd lost their jobs wow in recent weeks.

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Speaker 2: And you know, as you said, it was this almost

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Speaker 2: instantaneous thing that it was announced and then it happened.

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Speaker 2: It's quite remarkable to watch now, Billy. I also remember

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Speaker 2: reading a lot this week about USAID. In the US,

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Speaker 2: it's called USAID outside we tend to call it USAID,

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Speaker 2: So whichever one you prefer, But can you just talk

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Speaker 2: me through whether Ila Musk is involved with the reports

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Speaker 2: I've seen this week about USAID.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's completely involved in leading the initiative to basically

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Speaker 1: shut down USAID. So this is just another way that

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Speaker 1: they are planning to cut spending is by shutting down

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Speaker 1: the US's aid agency, which is called USAID. So for

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Speaker 1: those not familiar, USAID was set up to administer humanitarian

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Speaker 1: aid programs on behalf of the US government. So it

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Speaker 1: does things like help provide aids such as food in

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Speaker 1: countries where there is famine. Also when there are disasters

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Speaker 1: in countries, it also typically helps with that. Here's what

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk said when he was asked why he was

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Speaker 1: cutting it.

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Speaker 3: I think that there are some worthy things, but overall,

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Speaker 3: if you say, what does the bank of the buck,

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Speaker 3: I would say it was not very good and there

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Speaker 3: was far too much of what you said. My idea

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Speaker 3: was doing was influencing, influencing elections in ways that I

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Speaker 3: think were dubious and do not stand the later day.

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Speaker 1: It hires thousands of workers, and not just in the

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Speaker 1: US but in countries all over the world, and so

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Speaker 1: now the large majority of those workers are at risk

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Speaker 1: of losing their job. I do want to note that

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Speaker 1: a judge has temporarily halted anything happening on this front

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Speaker 1: for about a week plust they make a final decision,

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Speaker 1: So we're going to have to wait and see what

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Speaker 1: happens there. But this stage, we know that DOJ is

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Speaker 1: basically wanting to completely shut USA. We just have to

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Speaker 1: wait and see what happens in the courts.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, one of those interesting examples of how the judiciary

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Speaker 2: and the executive are interacting at a time like this.

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Speaker 2: Billy in the office the other day, one of our

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Speaker 2: team members said that there was an expiry date to DOGE,

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Speaker 2: that Elon Musk doesn't just have this free reign, that

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Speaker 2: actually he is on a short term contract, if you

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Speaker 2: were to put it that way. Is that correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So there's two things to this about there being

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Speaker 1: like a potential expiry date too DOGE. So the first

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Speaker 1: is that in Trump's executive order which I mentioned earlier

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Speaker 1: that established DOGE, it said that the temporary organization of

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Speaker 1: DOGE will end on the fourth of July twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: So that's still a year and a bit to complete

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Speaker 1: what it says its aim is. But even sooner than that,

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Speaker 1: Musk is technically serving under Trump as something that is

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Speaker 1: called a special government employee, and that is just a

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Speaker 1: specific category of temporary workers in the government, and they

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Speaker 1: can only work for the federal government for one hundred

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Speaker 1: and thirty days. So there is an expiry on Musk's

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Speaker 1: official involvement in the White House. I guess we'll have

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Speaker 1: to wait and see as to what that looks like,

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Speaker 1: if he will stop working.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's difficult to consider that happening now,

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Speaker 2: given how involved he is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, one thing that I've heard people asking in

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Speaker 1: our comment sections is whether or not he gets paid

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Speaker 1: for this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he does not.

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Speaker 1: Oh man doesn't need a buck.

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Speaker 2: True, money doesn't really matter to him a whole lot.

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Speaker 2: Before we end, I do want to turn to some

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Speaker 2: of the criticisms of DOGE because there are a lot

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Speaker 2: of criticisms. They're quite varied there from different parts of society.

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Speaker 2: Can you just walk us through what that opposition looks like.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Like you said, there is quite a lot of

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Speaker 1: criticism about DOGE. One is that there is concern that

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Speaker 1: Musk is acting without transparency. He disputes that. He says

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Speaker 1: he is being very transparent. But you know, there is

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Speaker 1: a lot of criticism around that. There's also concern about

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Speaker 1: how much information Musk now has access to despite the

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Speaker 1: fact that he is an unelected official.

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Speaker 2: I think that's the big thing that is coming out,

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Speaker 2: that he wasn't elected by the people, but yet he

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Speaker 2: has so much power.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it fit like the fact that he's

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Speaker 1: holding these press conferences with the president. It feels like

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Speaker 1: kind of at times like they're co president.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like he's the vice president or something.

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Speaker 1: There's also concern that there's a conflict of interest given

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Speaker 1: that Musk runs companies that have contracts with the government

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Speaker 1: that are worth billions of dollars, and also that he

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Speaker 1: could potentially be gaining access to federal contracts that the

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Speaker 1: government has with his competitors. Beyond that, there is also

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Speaker 1: a lot of criticism about what's something like shutting down

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Speaker 1: USAID could mean for the populations of countries who really

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Speaker 1: rely on that funding to live and oftentimes to survive.

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Speaker 1: The New York Times last week reported that already the

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Speaker 1: collapse of USAID is causing really big holes and things

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Speaker 1: like healthcare for locals in Africa, and there are quotes

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Speaker 1: from locals there saying that they are just in disbelief

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Speaker 1: about what this will mean for them and for their

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Speaker 1: future and for the region more broadly.

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Speaker 2: Clearly that quote goes to the fact that America here

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Speaker 2: isn't acting in isolation, and that the decisions that are

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Speaker 2: happening internally are then affecting other countries around the world.

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Speaker 2: Just bringing it back to Australia to end with, we

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Speaker 2: have seen Opposition leader Peter Dudden announce his own version

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Speaker 2: of doge here in Australia. It was in a shadow

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Speaker 2: cabinet reshuffle a few weeks ago, but I don't think

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Speaker 2: we covered it on this podcast. What happened?

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Speaker 1: Okay, So for context, we have an election coming up

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Speaker 1: in Australia and that means that Opposition leader Peter Dudden

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Speaker 1: is kind of prepping, prepping and starting to tell Australia

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Speaker 1: what he would do if he was the Prime minister

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Speaker 1: and elected. And as part of that he has created

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Speaker 1: this new role that's called the Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency.

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Speaker 1: Now that sounds quite similar to the departm of Government

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Speaker 1: Efficiency that Donald Trump created for Elon Musk. Now, Dudden

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Speaker 1: has denied that he was inspired by Trump, so he

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Speaker 1: says that they're not similar, but in terms of what

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Speaker 1: they are designed to do. What Dudden has said that

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Speaker 1: his shadow portfolio is designed to do it is similar.

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Speaker 1: It is dedicated to achieving a more efficient use of

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Speaker 1: taxpayers money. Those are his words. And in terms of

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Speaker 1: who would be leading that, it would be just Enterprise.

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Speaker 1: So that means that at the moment she is the

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Speaker 1: shadow Minister for Government Efficiency and presumably if the coalition

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Speaker 1: is elected, she would then become the Minister for Government Efficiency. Now,

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Speaker 1: in terms of why he says that this is needed,

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Speaker 1: it is because he says that the labor government spending

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Speaker 1: is wasteful and out of control, and Price also said

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Speaker 1: that the current government spending had contributed to high inflation

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Speaker 1: and also the broader cost of living crisis. So there's

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Speaker 1: a lot there. I think despite the fact that Dudden

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Speaker 1: is denying that he was inspired by Trump, there are

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Speaker 1: some parallels that we can potentially draw and as always,

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Speaker 1: it's one to keep an eye on and one that

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Speaker 1: the Daily Ods will keep you informed about.

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Speaker 2: Billy, thank you so much and thank you for joining

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Speaker 2: us for another episode of the Daily Ods.

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Speaker 1: and we'll be back again this afternoon with your afternoon headlines.

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