DeSantis heaps praise on Musk for piercing federal agencies' ‘aura of invincibility’

While a new poll indicates a growing percentage of Republicans aren’t pleased by all of Elon Musk’s moves to take down certain federal agencies through his “Department of Government Efficiency”, Ron DeSantis is not one of them. The Florida governor said Thursday that he thinks it’s “great” what the tech billionaire has accomplished with his DOGE team since they began looking at reducing government spending over the past three weeks. “They’re doing a good job of exposing really, really deep corruption into how the federal administrative apparatus actually operates.” Musk’s focus on USAID has exposed some examples of government spending he has characterized as dubious, but its supporters say the agency has also provided financial aid to countries around the world for decades to combat human trafficking and diseases, and has funded equipment, medicine, and staffing in countries battling pandemics and disease outbreaks. He said that while it “great to be able to see a lot of the corruption be rooted out,” it is ultimately up to lawmakers in D.C. to do a better job of protecting taxpayer dollars and “defunding corrupt agencies in the first place.” “DOGE is kind of the first real significant intrusion into the bureaucrat’s aura of invincibility that somehow they can’t be touched, and you’re seeing the apple cart be upended, and so that’s a great sign,” he said. The survey also shows that 43% of GOP respondents want Musk to have “a little” influence, while 17% want him to have “none at all.” Overall, only 13% of surveyed Americans want Musk to have “a lot” of influence on the Trump administration, while 25% say want “a little” and 46% want “none at all.” That’s substantially down from November, when 34% of surveyed Americans wanted Musk to have “a lot” of influence, 22% wanted him to have “a little,” and 30% said, “None at all.” Simpson on hand DeSantis was introduced at the lunch warmly by Agriculture Commission Wilton Simpson, who called him “dedicated public servant, a family man, and someone who has worked tirelessly to make Florida the best state in the nation.” That was a remarkable different tone than what the two Republicans engaged in last week, after the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature passed an illegal immigration bill that transferred state power regarding immigration issues from DeSantis to Simpson’s office — a scenario the governor described as “the fox guarding the hen house.” The prompted Simpson to declare that “I’m not the one who opposed and ran against President Trump.” After the lunch, the Phoenix caught up with Simpson and asked him if it would be a deal-breaker for the Legislature to amend their bill and transfer immigration issues back to the governor as is the case currently.