Elon Musk has the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ready to go. 

The Washington Post reports that Musk already has hired 50 employees and that he has already set these employees up in Washington, D.C.

This has to be somewhat disconcerting for the district.

As we will see, though, Musk is not as optimistic about DOGE as he once was.

50 troops deployed

According to the Post, hiring efforts for DOGE have ramped up recently.

Per the outlet:

At the same time, Musk and Ramaswamy have significantly stepped up hiring for their new entity, with more than 50 staffers already working out of the offices of SpaceX, Musk’s rocket-building company, in downtown Washington, two of the people said. DOGE aims to have a staff of close to 100 people in place by Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, they said.

Not only that, but Musk is also getting to work on identifying government waste.

The outlet reports:

In recent days, aides with the nongovernmental “Department of Government Efficiency" tied to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team have spoken with staffers at more than a dozen federal agencies, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. The agencies include the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services, the people said.

This could give us some idea of what Musk is prioritizing.

"Best-case outcome"

As you probably know, Musk has made some fairly lofty claims about how much money he can save the government and thus the American people. He, in fact, has suggested that he could save trillions, with a "t."

Now, however, it appears that Musk might be slightly less optimistic.

USA Today reports:

After originally promising to slash federal funding by $2 trillion using the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk now says that might not be possible . . . In an interview broadcasted on X, formerly Twitter, Musk told political strategist Mark Penn that the figure of $2 trillion was a “best-case outcome,” instead suggesting there is a “good shot” at cutting close to $1 trillion instead.

The outlet then goes on to report Musk as saying, "I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s the best-case outcome. But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting 1 [trillion]."

Either way, it would be a big step in the right direction.