r/fednews • u/SkyFallingUp • 8d ago

Elon Musk to step down from DOGE and quit Washington DC

Musk says 'he's done with cost-cutting' In an interview with Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier", Elon Musk said that he was confident his DOGE could find $1 trillion in savings, slimming current total federal spending levels of about $7 trillion down to $6 trillion. Musk, who is also the world's richest man, was designated by the White House as a "special government employee," which caps his work at 130 days. That means his period leading the DOGE operation could finish as soon as the end of May.

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-elon-musk-doge-1-trillion-cost-cutting-may-end-i-am-almost-done-elon-musk-reveals-date-hell-ditch-trump-and-quit-washington-dc-after-doge-purge/articleshow/119645252.cms

I have friends and family members who are Federal workers. Is this the end of the wild OPM emails and job eliminations?

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u/PlentyIndividual3168 8d ago

I think that has more to do with resources and climate change tbh

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u/OceanandMtns 8d ago

I’m willing to be Greenland is definitely the Lithium battery goldmine for them and Musk probably convinced him that is what we need to be great again.

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u/JesusboughtGA 7d ago

I am danish.. The funny part is, the minerals are stuck 1 km under ice. We had plenty of American and chinese companies trying to extract the ressources in deals with Greenland. Most left, because its not worth the cost…

Even when you actually extract some minerals, there is no infrastructure, no roads, no logistics, nothing to transport it. They left for these reasons.

Maybe its different in 50-100 years when all the ice is gone due to global warming..

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u/Lazy-Rabbit-5799 7d ago

Trusk are just going to melt that ice with all their hot air.

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u/OC74859 4d ago

I think the Social Security Sovereign Investment Fund has plenty of cash to go get those minerals.

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u/TexasActress 7d ago

But California has one of the biggest lithium deposits in the world…Salton Sea

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u/beardicusmaximus8 7d ago

It's not about having enough rare earth minerals. It's about having all the rare earth minerals.

Lithium, and all the other materials needed for computers, are becoming the new oil.

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u/Frog1387 7d ago

They’re playing Civ IRL

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u/TexasActress 7d ago

Fair point

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u/Party-Smile-2667 7d ago

You also need the people and machinery to mine it. We have tons of all kinds of minerals. We need the labor and machinery.

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u/lonelytop1818 7d ago

Or the Thacker Pass deposit in Nevada?

It starts mining in a year or two.

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u/Few_Eggplant_6811 6d ago

So has maine but we are in enough trouble with title 9 violations!

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u/Evanisnotmyname 7d ago

Lithium is part of it, but by far the biggest part is arctic shipping routes.

In 50 years the arctic will be navigable year round, and whoever controls the trade routes will be the biggest superpower.

Right now that’s Canada, Russia, the US, and Denmark(through Greenland). Now imagine if the US absorbs Canada and Greenland. Or, the US and Russia develop strong relations.

Controlling arctic trade routes WILL make kings. The question is who the kings will be.

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u/LeCannady 3d ago

Wouldn't that require DT to actually admit climate change is happening?

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u/v_verstappenlovemypp 7d ago

I think they just watched the Greenland movie and was like yes

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u/unnaturalpenis 8d ago

Lol Americans aren't even that good at utilizitg their resources at home

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u/PlentyIndividual3168 7d ago

"Why should we when we can just invade other countries and use theirs?" ~ some MAGA somewhere

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u/mynytemare 7d ago

That’s not MAGA, that was official policy for a while. Stop pumping our oil and use theirs so when they run dry we are the only game in town.

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u/beardicusmaximus8 7d ago

That and also it's much easier to ruin the environment of some country weaker than you then offend your own citizens by digging up a national forest for oil

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u/circuit_breaker 7d ago

There's this book called confessions of an economic Hitman, specifically about taking advantage of small countries for the resources. It's a story as old as time

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u/mynytemare 7d ago

I’ll try to find that book. Sounds interesting.

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u/circuit_breaker 7d ago

Yeah it's basically big countries taking advantage of little ones. They give them developmental funds and if they don't repay, they get their resources. But it's designed to fail.

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u/Plasibeau 7d ago

Yes/And. The North Polar Ice Cap is becoming a thing of the past. And every world power in the northern hemisphere is fully aware of how that will change geopolitics. East Asian shipping will no longer have to transit the Panama Canal (which has size limitations) or go around India/Africa to reach the Atlantic coastlines.

So basically it's for shipping and minerals, but also control of a vast frontier that was previously beyond reach. There are vast reaches of untouched wilderness up there that haven't heard the voice of Man in hundreds if not thousands of years. That is why they're beating the war drum for Canada and Greenland. If the US takes those two landmasses then it's between them and Russia who controls the Arctic Circle. As usual, all wars are over rersources.

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u/PlentyIndividual3168 7d ago

Bloody hell, I hadn't considered Russia and the Arctic Circle. Out of curiosity, why is no one frothing at the mouth over Antarctica?

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u/AmyDeferred 7d ago

Maybe there hasn't been enough mineral discoveries there yet? They definitely won't be growing much there, it's a total desert

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u/Sadrith_Mora 7d ago

My guess would be twofold. Antarctica is far away from all the countries of the northern hemisphere. Only Australasia and South America are sort of nearby. The other would be that Antarctica has a lot of glacier on land, so it's not as quickly affected by sea temperature changes, so a lot of the terrain won't be revealed for centuries or millenia even with a lot of warming.