Elon Musk came to Washington with a chainsaw and left with a black eye.

Shrinking government is hard, particularly when you do it callously and carelessly – and apparently on hallucinogens.

Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House.Credit: AP

As with President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the Department of Government Efficiency has created more volatility than value.

A guy who went bankrupt six times doesn’t really care about spending. And Trump certainly didn’t want to see the headline, “Trump Cuts Social Security.” He just wanted to get revenge on “the bureaucracy” by deputising Musk to force out a lot of federal employees and give the impression that they were cutting all the waste.

As always with Trump, the former reality star, the impression matters more than the reality, especially the reality of his own sins. This past week, Trump tried to recast the very nature of crime.

As The New York Times′ Glenn Thrush wrote: “President Trump is employing the vast power of his office to redefine criminality to suit his needs – using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like, downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, and seeking to stigmatise political opponents by labelling them criminals.”

It is sickening that the Justice Department is considering settling........

© The Sydney Morning Herald