Florida Governor Ron DeSantis didn’t mince words when he took fellow Republicans to task over their failure to implement real spending cuts.
He ripped Congressional Republicans for not following any of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recommendations.
And Ron DeSantis gave Republicans a brutal reality check for abandoning this one important initiative.
The popular governor unleashed a blistering critique that left establishment Republicans reeling as he accused them of betraying the very voters who sent them to Congress.
DeSantis made his frustrations clear in a scathing post on X, where he didn’t hold back in defending Musk’s efforts.
“Elon Musk took massive incoming — including attacks on his companies as well as personal smears — to lead the effort on DOGE,” DeSantis wrote. “He became public enemy #1 of legacy media around the world.”
The Florida governor then delivered the knockout blow to his fellow Republicans.
“To see Republicans in Congress cast aside any meaningful spending reductions (and, in fact, fully fund things like USAID) is demoralizing and represents a betrayal of the voters who elected them,” he added.
.@elonmusk took massive incoming — including attacks on his companies as well as personal smears — to lead the effort on @DOGE.
He became public enemy #1 of legacy media around the world.
To see Republicans in Congress cast aside any meaningful spending reductions (and, in… https://t.co/vVWzgNDbmV
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) May 27, 2025
DeSantis explains why inflation is crushing American families
During a bill signing ceremony Tuesday, where he made gold and silver legal tender in Florida, DeSantis broke down how the Swamp’s spending addiction directly hurts everyday Americans.
“Inflation is a tax. When your money becomes less valuable, that’s no different in outcome than if Congress were to simply just directly tax you,” DeSantis explained. “It’s less transparent, it’s more indirect, but it’s having the same exact impact.”
He connected the dots between deficit spending and the economic pain felt by regular people.
“When they do deficit spending of $2 trillion, and they say, ‘Well, you know, we don’t want to raise taxes’—and I’m not arguing for that either. I’m arguing for lowering spending, but just understand that a $2 trillion deficit is a tax on you,” DeSantis stated.
The Swamp won this round
What particularly rankled DeSantis was how Musk put everything on the line to help reduce government waste, only to be abandoned by the very Republicans who should have been his strongest allies.
“And yet we have a Republican Congress, and to this day (we’re at the end of May, past Memorial Day), and not one cent in those cuts has been implemented by the Congress,” DeSantis stated.
“It’s a little frustrating. You know, Elon Musk went into this DOGE effort. He was getting lampooned… they’re firebombing his Tesla dealerships, media smearing him relentlessly, his businesses suffered—all this stuff—because he basically said, ‘Look, we can’t keep doing this, and we need to moderate and reduce the amount of money that the federal government is spending,'” DeSantis recounted.
The governor’s conclusion was brutally honest: “I don’t think there’s any question that DOGE fought the Swamp—and so far, the Swamp has won.”
Republican lawmakers struggle to implement DOGE cuts
Despite claims from congressional Republicans that they intend to implement DOGE recommendations, their actions tell a different story.
House Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which supposedly cuts $1.5 trillion in spending over the next decade, but also increases the deficit by extending the 2017 tax cuts.
Some Republicans have claimed the Senate reconciliation process limits what they can do regarding DOGE cuts.
Trump advisor Stephen Miller explained on X that “The senate rules prevent it from cutting ‘discretionary’ spending — eg, the Department of Education or federal grants. The DOGE cuts are overwhelmingly discretionary, not mandatory.”
DOGE cuts are to discretionary spending. (Eg the federal bureaucracy). Under senate budget rules, you cannot cut discretionary spending (only mandatory) in a reconciliation bill.
So DOGE cuts would have to be done through what is known as a rescissions package or an…
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) May 28, 2025
But for DeSantis, these procedural excuses ring hollow.
He argued that the failure to implement any of DOGE’s recommendations proves the need for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and term limits for members of Congress.
Musk’s muted response speaks volumes
As for Musk himself, the billionaire entrepreneur who put his reputation and businesses on the line responded to the situation with uncharacteristic brevity.
“Did my best,” Musk wrote in a subdued post on X.
Did my best
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2025
Conservative commentator Matt Van Swol had earlier highlighted the strange disconnect between DOGE’s popularity and the lack of congressional action.
“DOGE is literally one of the most popular government initiatives in history,” Van Swol wrote. “73% of Americans say they support cutting government waste. Trump brought in the smartest man on earth to do it… the Left destroyed Elon for it… the GOP won’t vote on it. I can’t believe this.”
DOGE is literally one of the most popular government initiatives in history.
73% of Americans say they support cutting government waste.
Trump brought in the smartest man on earth to do it…
…the Left destroyed Elon for it
…the GOP won’t vote on it
I can’t believe this.
— Matt Van Swol (@matt_vanswol) May 26, 2025
The whole episode raises serious questions about whether any outsider, even someone with Musk’s resources and the backing of President Trump, can truly Drain the Swamp.
DeSantis certainly doesn’t think so—at least not without structural reforms like a balanced budget amendment and congressional term limits to force fiscal discipline on reluctant lawmakers.
