House Speaker Mike Johnson has openly distanced himself from Elon Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), promising that recent drastic cuts to government programs and employees will be ‘corrected.’
The remarks, made during Johnson’s appearance on Fox News’ Outnumbered on Friday, have reignited the debate over Musk’s sweeping overhaul of government bureaucracy.
While the billionaire entrepreneur insists his efficiency-driven approach is a necessary intervention to trim government excess, critics argue the abrupt cuts are wreaking havoc on critical federal programs and costing dedicated workers their jobs.
But as criticism of DOGE mounted during the live debate, Johnson’s tone suddenly appeared to shift as he signaled a clear separation from Musk’s approach.
‘Stay tuned. Stay tuned because it’s going to be corrected,’ he stated, revealing that he had personally spoken to Musk about the backlash.
When confronted about accusations that Musk’s drastic government cuts were racially motivated, Johnson was also quick to dismiss such claims as ‘patently absurd.’
‘For them to say this has anything whatsoever to do with race, it has to do with government largesse. The government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing well,’ he fired back, aligning himself with Musk’s call for fiscal restraint.
Johnson praised Musk for ‘cracking the code’ on government inefficiency, crediting him with exposing hidden and wasteful spending practices.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has openly distanced himself from Elon Musk ‘s controversial DOGE, promising recent drastic cuts to government programs and employees will be corrected
Johnson had initially championed Musk’s aggressive approach to cutting waste
Musk holding a chainsaw on stage at a conservative conference last month
‘I mentioned earlier that Congress has not been able to do its oversight responsibility for decades, because the bureaucracy has been hiding the data. I mean, we didn’t know that USAID was funding transgender operas in Peru.
‘Obviously, everyone would have struck that down. So Elon has gotten inside,’ Johnson explained.
He then went on to highlight Musk’s use of advanced algorithms to scrutinize government data, a tool that Johnson claims has helped expose wasteful federal spending.
‘As Elon says, the data doesn’t lie. And the American people are with us on this,’ he added.
Johnson had initially championed Musk’s aggressive approach to cutting waste.
The leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has already cut federal agencies, fired staff, and slashed federal spending.
The Trump administration has ended diversity hiring, froze federal contracts and declared there are only two genders – but it is clear that not everyone is on board.
Liberal Outnumbered contributor Marie Harf offered a more sobering perspective on the consequences of Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting measures, citing job losses among long-serving federal employees, including veterans.
‘The government shouldn’t be in the business of firing a veteran who served their country for 20 years and then having to fix it later. I don’t trust that it will fix it later. I just don’t,’ Harf argued.
She also warned that some of the cuts have targeted crucial programs such as cancer research and support for scientists dedicated to life-saving medical advancements.
Johnson highlighted Musk’s use of advanced algorithms to scrutinize government data, a tool that Johnson claims has helped expose wasteful federal spending
Liberal Outnumbered contributor Marie Harf offered a more sobering perspective on the consequences of Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting measures, citing job losses among long-serving federal employees, including veterans
Elon Musk heads President Donald Trump’s DOGE
‘So we can talk about cuts, but doing it this way hurts Americans. It’s irresponsible. And quite frankly, that’s why you see not just paid protesters coming to these town halls and saying, ‘I’m a veteran, I lost my job. I have come to work every day. How can you and Elon Musk make millions of dollars every day from the American government, and you’re firing these people?”
Johnson attempted to calm fears and suggested that more fired worked would be reemployed.
‘I’ve talked to Elon about this personally and many of us have. He has completely pure motives. He’s trying to make the government work better for the people. All the people in the essential employees and the people doing great work will come back,’ he assured.
Johnson’s pivot suggests that Republican leadership is feeling the heat from constituents outraged over the unintended consequences of DOGE’s rapid-fire cuts.
The acknowledgment that fired employees may be rehired – particularly those working in sensitive sectors like nuclear weapons maintenance – marks a major concession.
DOGE has faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks for its chaotic handling of layoffs, particularly its firing of key federal employees only to attempt to rehire them later.
Among those affected were workers responsible for maintaining nuclear weapons sites across the U.S., a move that has raised serious national security concerns and Musk and his allies are now face mounting pressure to reassess their approach.
People holding banners chant during a rally outside Jacob K. Javits Federal Building against the firings of thousands of federal workers by Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE
Researchers, academics and protesters rally outside the Health and Human Services (HHS) Building against DOGE funding freezes on research and higher education in Washington, DC
Earlier this week Musk revealed his next two targets as he moves to slash the size of the federal government.
He’s now looking at cutting the U.S. Postal Service and the railway service Amtrak.
Musk named his targets when he spoke to a Morgan Stanley conference on Wednesday, CNN reported. He addressed the participants virtually.
In his remarks, the tech billionaire compared his influence over the federal government to that of a ‘corporate takeover.’
‘To understand the federal government, it is like a corporate takeover at scale, but one where the company is actually in much worse shape than any commercial company could ever be,’ Musk said.
Musk went on to say that ‘logically we should prioritize anything that can reasonably be privatized,’ which is when he named the USPS and Amtrak.
Musk called Amtrak a ‘sad situation.’
‘If you’re coming from another country, please don’t use our national rail. It can leave you with a very bad impression of America,’ Musk said.
‘We should try to privatize everything we possibly can, and that would be my recommendation,’ Musk added.
