Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said Mr. Musk’s focus on high-profile items like
diversity, equity and inclusion programs or
subscriptions to news media organizations might “excite the MAGA base” but amounted to “essentially budget dust” in the scheme of things.
“Trump is still a big spender,” she said. “Cutting $1 billion from D.E.I. government contracts and Politico subscriptions will not make up for increasing defense and border spending by $325 billion, as Congress is preparing to do.”