Dangerous Oligarchs Grab Everything”, read one sign satirising Doge – the new, Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency – at a downtown Washington, DC protest against the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to reduce the size and expense of the US federal bureaucracy.

President Donald Trump had said the Pentagon would be an early target of Musk's DOGE, which has swept through federal agencies searching for spending cuts as part of Trump's overhaul and shrinking of the U.

While investors hoped Musk's association with Trump would boost the company, sales and stock price are down since inauguration. Some industry analysts say Musk's political involvement is to blame, others that it's thanks to Tesla falling behind on new model releases.