Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, was criticized after he had to be told to "calm down" by CNN's Brianna Keilar once Miller started shouting in defense of the Trump administration's federal spending cuts via the (non-department) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Billionaire Elon Musk has garnered criticism for gutting federal agencies via DOGE despite not being an elected official—and a foreign-born unelected official at that.
In fact, according to a White House record, Musk's job title is listed as "unlisted." When President Donald Trump established DOGE through an executive order, he integrated it into the White House by transforming the U.S. Digital Service into the U.S. DOGE Service. The order specified that an "administrator" would lead DOGE but did not indicate who held the position.
Earlier this month, a White House spokesperson stated that Musk holds the title of an unpaid special government employee, a designation that exempts him from the standard ethics and conflict-of-interest regulations applicable to federal workers.
But Miller did not address concerns about Musk's lack of accountability even while insisting that Trump is leading efforts to hold government agencies accountable:
“The American people are exhausted and tired of watching their tax dollars be corruptly spent, abused, wasted and in every sense robbed and stolen from them. This president, for the first time in history, is committed to restoring accountability at every level of the federal government.”
“You may assert there’s no waste in the Pentagon. You may assert there’s no waste in Treasury. You may assert…”
Keilar cut in, saying:
“Oh, Stephen, I’m not asserting. I don’t think anyone would assert that, Stephen.”
But Miller began shouting on the air:
“Then why are you not celebrating these cuts? If you agree there is waste, if you agree there is abuse, if you agree there is corruption, why are you not celebrating the cuts, the reforms that are being instituted? Every day that no action is taken, the entire...”
His outburst forced Keilar to try and defuse the situation:
“But Stephen, let’s calm down. Stephen, let’s calm down. We’re not having a debate about whether there are...”
But he said:
"I will be as excited as I want to be that we are saving Americans millions of dollars, that we are ending the theft and waste and grift and corruption, that we are stopping federal dollars from subsidizing a woke federal bureaucracy that has been relentlessly weaponized against the American people."
You can watch what happened in the video below.
Miller's tantrum exposed him to heated criticism.
Musk has stated that his goal is to reduce federal spending by $2 trillion from the $6.75 trillion annual budget recorded in the last fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. According to DOGE, its initiatives have led to an estimated $55 billion in savings. However, recent reports indicate that the actual savings may be significantly lower.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the DOGE website accounts for only $16.6 billion of the $55 billion it claims to have saved. Additionally, on Tuesday, The New York Times revealed that DOGE had incorrectly cited an $8 billion savings on a federal contract that was actually valued at just $8 million.
While DOGE currently faces multiple legal challenges, on Tuesday a federal judge denied a request to prevent DOGE from accessing federal agencies’ computer systems or directing government worker terminations while litigation continues.
