The agency known as "Doge" is Musk's brainchild, but the White House insists that he is not its leader - or even employed by it.

Twenty-one civil service employees have resigned from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, saying they're refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”

When he is not sharing memes of himself as a conquering Roman centurion or shrieking while brandishing a chain saw onstage at a CPAC conference, Elon Musk occasionally adopts the pose of a reasonable moderate offering an open hand of compromise that Democrats slap away.