Ok, so let me try to make sense of this:
Around the year 2010-2020, i and many other vehemently warned against the issue of rising national debt. Yet "experts" said "it's fine, we can make as much debt as we want to, nothing bad is going to happen because of it lol".
Starting in the last 5 years or so, lots of experts say "oh no, the national debt is way to high, that's a disaster, that's a catastrophe, we can't let that happen, who put us into this situation?" Just let me appreciate the irony for a bit. I fucking called it. I said this was going to happen. I was called insane. This feels really validating to me.
Anyways, since now lots of people, including economists, are angry that the debt is too high, people want it lowered. The obvious and straightforward solution would of course be to introduce a wealth tax (i.e. a tax on millionaires and billionaires).
In the beginning of 2025, Musk and Trump both agreed (at least in public) that the debt has to be lowered. Musk's attempt was to cut the federal government. Well, the federal government spends money for two things, mostly: subsidies (social security, medical bill assistance, ...) and data-processing (i.e., enforcing regulations, tax collection agency, ...). The first one costs most of the money, but reducing it gets the public angry (understandably) and is therefore a political suicide. The second one doesn't really cost that much, yet that is the one that Musk attempted to reduce to the point of dysfunctionality. Since it didn't cost much to begin with, reducing it didn't save a lot of money. In May 2025, Trump says "was Musk's DOGE all a hoax?" and the feud begins. Musk realizes that Trump is against increasing taxes for the rich and publicly accuses Trump of having no actual intention of lowering the national debt. This is where we are now.