Rubio says DOGE changes will be made permanent in State Department

The last person I expected to stand up for Elon Musk as he walked out the door was Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Despite reports that Rubio and Musk were at each other’s throats, Rubio promised to make the DOGE-recommended cuts to his department permanent as Musk was ending his time with the administration.

Dog Fight

Not long after Musk joined the team, there were reports that he and Rubio were clashing over staff cuts, with Musk upset that Rubio had not trimmed his roster beyond what had been forcefully cut.

During one meeting, insiders stated that Rubio and Musk’s argument went on for some time before Trump finally stepped in to defend Rubio, saying that he was doing a “great job.”

Rubio was far from being alone on this front, as Musk had also gotten into a public joust with Treasury Secretary Bessent.

To his credit, though, Rubio never publicly said anything negative about Musk, preferring to keep his comments behind closed doors.

Disappointed

When the House passed the “big, beautiful bill,” it failed to include DOGE cuts, which would have codified the changes.

Musk was clearly disappointed, coming off as though he felt like he was being used as a prop, even though he and Trump offered the public appearance that everything was still fine between them.

Musk, at the time, stated, "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly," adding that the new bill “increased the budget deficit, not just decreases it.”

Honestly, I thought this would have Trump exploding on social media, but he called Musk to the White House for his farewell, even giving him a key to the White House as a gesture of goodwill.

I’ll Handle this

With Musk now out, it will be up the Cabinet to pick up where DOGE left off, and the State Department is on board completely.

One official stated, "We have too many godd--- offices. We’re trying to shrink offices rather than create them." The official added that they are looking to reduce State Department staffing by about 40%.

As far as DOGE goes, Trump stated that his Cabinet heads will take over the duties, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained, "Surely the mission of Doge will continue. Doge employees are now political employees."

In terms of real cuts and savings, I would consider DOGE a failure, but I never really expected much from it, as my regular readers know. In terms of raising awareness of how much money our government wastes, I would consider DOGE a complete and unmitigated success, at least for anyone who had an open mind going into this term.