It wasn't announced as 'DOGE' but it was not a surprise; from August: "Former President Donald Trump signaled his willingness to offer Elon Musk a role in his administration in a proposed “government efficiency commission” if he wins the presidential election in November"[1].
In the Republican Party Platform 2024: "2. Rein in Wasteful Federal Spending. Republicans will immediately stabilize the Economy by slashing wasteful Government spending"[2]
There have been plenty of government commissions in the past. None of them functioned anything like DOGE, not even the ones instituted by the current President during his first term.
I think this is a surprise to many…even Trump’s more ardent supporters. After all, they thought they were voting for President Trump, not Assistant (to the) President Trump.
Hindsight is 20/20, but what's scarier to me is the approval ratings[0]
There's still apparently 40% of the population that approves of this behavior. staggering 72% of republicans still approve of this behavior.
This did spike his approval ratings, but such an utter breach in the government really should be much closer to democrat's 10% here instead of the normally middling behavior of "bad" president's 40%. There's stll way too many people approving of this. For reference, Nixon's ratings right before resigning was 24%.
