Guess we'll take his word for it.404 ErrorElon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is off to a strange start. Hoping to clear the air yesterday, Musk responded to criticism of DOGE head-on in a bizarre and uncomfortable press conference.Flanked by president Donald Trump and his four-year old son, a stammering Musk defended himself from the charge that he could benefit immensely from his unelected position, gutting agencies thatare directly in charge of investigating and regulating his billion-dollar business ventures.When asked what mechanisms were in place to guarantee accountability and transparency as DOGE ransacks the federal government, Musk replied that "we post our actions to the DOGE handle on X, and on the DOGE website" clearly referring to the official government URL, DOGE.gov.There's just one problem: the DOGE website had been blank for weeks at that point. When it first launched, it was a single splash page containing an AI-mangled American flag anda simple message proclaiming that "the people voted for major reform,"but it was subsequently scrubbed even of the flag graphic.This afternoon, after many observers pointed out that Musk had publicly promoted a blank webpage, the site was updated with ten blog posts backdated as far as February 7. Most are simple and declarative, like one that claims with no citation or evidence that the "NIH team" had saved "$4B annually in excessive grant administrative costs."Nor is there any useful information on Musk's wasteful and fraudulent spending crusade on DOGE's sister website, waste.gov,which was pulled down today after people noticed it was a lorem-ipsum-style blank WordPress template.It goes without saying that there are massive gaps in the accountability chain that would be true even if these two sites were bursting with content. Despite Musk making unsubstantiated claims of rampant fraud, neither he nor the broader Trump administration have produced any evidence.The closest we've gotten to verified proof came at a press conference today, when Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt waved around printed screenshots of "contracts upon contracts" that she said went "against the President's policies" a suspicious phrasing that falls well short of constituting fraud.And while it's true that Musk's DOGE account posts loudly and often about cutting things like Department of Education training grants and the government's Politico subscription, these hardly constitute fraud either. That charge has so far been used as cover for Musk's ideological project rather than any substantial budget savings, especially as DOGE's spending skyrockets.Yesterday, the White House announced that Musk is employed as a "special government employee" meaning his own federal compensation won't be disclosed to the public. If the billionaire's personal conduct is any indication, the American people will probably remain in the dark on what's happening in their government for the foreseeable future.Share This Article