• Spring is often a good time to sell a house, though that may not hold true in 2025.
• Home supply is rising, and government spending cuts may boost inventory even further.
• Here are 14 cities where prices could fall in the coming months.

Homeowners looking to relocate would normally be in luck as the weather warms up.

Spring usually ushers in the start of the busy season in the US housing market. In fact, a new report from Realtor.com remarked that the single best week to list a home is in mid-April, since median prices and buyer demand are robust, while competition and price cuts are relatively low.

But this year could be completely different — if buyers realize how much leverage they have.

Sellers' bargaining power is waning as steadily surging home inventory puts property prices under pressure, according to an analysis of Realtor.com's data on the 50 largest US markets.

And that's before accounting for the potential fallout from the sweeping budget cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk, who runs the newly formed DOGE, plans to eliminate government jobs in droves, which could cause a mass exodus from cities like Washington, DC — thereby bringing down home prices in certain markets even further.

Buyers are back in the driver's seat as supply rises

For years, buying a house has been a painful process. Home affordability was in the tank since prices and mortgage rates were uncomfortably high, making ownership unattainable for many. And a widespread home shortage complicated the process for everyone, even wealthier buyers.

However, significant increases in home supply are shaking up the US real-estate market.

Active home listings rocketed 27.5% higher in February, Realtor.com reported late last month. That marked the 16th consecutive month that there were more houses available on a typical day than in the year prior, though supply is still rather stretched relative to pre-pandemic levels.

Similarly, the number of unsold homes — which accounts for those already under contract — had been up by 18.2% from early 2024, which made for the 15th straight month of growth. That includes newly listed homes, which were 4.2% more common compared to last February.

Major inventory improvements have made homes harder to sell. US houses had been for sale for about 66 days in February, versus just over two months last year. Properties have spent more time on the market than the year prior for the past 11 months, Realtor.com noted, and listings lingered longer than last year in 42 of the 50 largest US cities.

More houses on the market means that bidding wars have largely become a pandemic-era relic. Instead, sellers are resorting to price reductions to entice buyers. Nearly 17% of listings in February had received at least one price cut at some point, versus a 14.6% rate a year earlier.

"Sellers are increasingly adjusting to slower market conditions, as the share of homes with price reductions rose significantly last month," Realtor.com researchers Sabrina Speianu and Danielle Hale wrote late last month. "This trend could indicate a potential slowdown in price growth."

Median US home prices slipped 0.8% from last year to $412,000 in February, Realtor.com had found. It's worth noting that values were up 1.2% on a price-per-square-foot basis, suggesting that cheaper, small homes went to market.

Either way, prices aren't moving much, which is a win for hopeful buyers after years of explosive price growth. Even more exciting for them is the idea that home values could decline further.

14 cities where home prices could fall after Elon Musk's cuts

If DOGE's cuts to the federal government's workforce are as widespread as Musk would like, tens of thousands of employees may be looking for new places to live. Home listings could balloon in cities brimming with government workers, which could deflate their values.

This dynamic doesn't seem to be swaying home prices yet, Realtor.com's economic researchers said, noting that there isn't a discernable difference in prices, price reductions, inventory growth, or time on the market. However, they could certainly see that changing in the coming months.

"Federal workforce reductions could have ripple effects on housing markets with a high concentration of government employees," Speianu and Hale wrote. They added: "The typical home seller takes at least two weeks and often longer to prepare a home for sale, so any real impact is likely ahead."

Below are the 14 US cities where federal government employees make up at least 2% of the workforce, meaning their housing markets are most in danger of being shaken up by DOGE. Note that only the 50 largest markets tracked by Realtor.com were included in this analysis.

Along with each location its median listing price in February, its year-over-year price growth in aggregate and on a per-square-foot basis, its listing price growth since the start of this year, and the percentage of federal government employees as a share of its working population.

1. Washington, DC

Median listing price: $579,995

Median listing price growth: -3.3%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 0%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 7%; $40,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 11%

2. Virginia Beach, Virginia

Median listing price: $392,500

Median listing price growth: 1.4%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 5.4%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 6.4%; $25,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 7%

3. Oklahoma City

Median listing price: $314,992

Median listing price growth: -2.6%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 1.3%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 4.9%; $16,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 4.2%

4. Baltimore

Median listing price: $350,000

Median listing price growth: 6.2%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 2%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 5.8%; $20,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 3.7%

5. San Diego

Median listing price: $949,995

Median listing price growth: -4.7%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -2%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 5.9%; $56,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 3.1%

6. San Antonio

Median listing price: $327,000

Median listing price growth: -2.4%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -2.1%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 4.8%; $16,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 3%

7. Memphis, Tennessee

Median listing price: $328,050

Median listing price growth: 1.3%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 2.7%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 9.4%; $31,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2.8%

8. Tucson, Arizona

Median listing price: $396,200

Median listing price growth: -1%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -1.2%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 7.4%; $29,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2.8%

9. Richmond, Virginia

Median listing price: $429,653

Median listing price growth: -4.2%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 2.3%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 4.6%; $20,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2.7%

10. Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas

Median listing price: $379,450

Median listing price growth: -9.9%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -0.9%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 7.4%; $28,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2.6%

11. Jacksonville, Florida

Median listing price: $388,098

Median listing price growth: -5.3%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -3.3%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 7.6%; $29,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2.5%

12. Buffalo, New York

Median listing price: $249,974

Median listing price growth: -0.5%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 1.1%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 14.8%; $37,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2%

13. Cleveland

Median listing price: $241,725

Median listing price growth: 14%

Median listing price per square foot growth: 14.9%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 16.1%; $38,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2%

14. Tampa, Florida

Median listing price: $399,000

Median listing price growth: -4%

Median listing price per square foot growth: -4%

Listing price growth since Jan. 1: 6.5%; $26,000

Federal government employees as a share of workers: 2%

• Federal workers are protesting mass firings and workplace policy changes with subtle acts of dissent.
• The resistance follows workforce cuts and demands from Trump, Musk, and the White House's DOGE office.
• Workers are using snarky emails, pronouns, and legal action to counter the administration's policies.

First came the spoons, and then the staplers — subtle dissent is rippling through federal government offices in the era of cost cutting under Trump.

In response to a host of wide-ranging orders from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the White House's DOGE office, they're displaying pride flags, flaunting their pronouns, and sending snarky emails. As one worker said, it's all about "malicious compliance."

"I just go back and forth over which is worse: giving them what they want (an excuse to fire us) or kowtowing to their illegal bullshit," the federal worker told BI, referencing Musk's threat to workers who don't list their week's accomplishments in an email.

Business Insider spoke to 10 federal workers about the ways they're pushing back, granting them anonymity to protect their jobs. While some publicly booed leaders in meetings, others said they're trying to be subtle about their dissent because they aren't always sure which of their coworkers or bosses agree with them.

It's illustrative of the rift that's broken open in recent weeks as the administration has spearheaded efforts to terminate thousands of federal workers, cut federal funding to key programs, and change the way remaining employees do their jobs. The federal employees BI spoke to said they've found comfort in banding together and making statements on the job whenever they can.

The first signs were workers embracing a spoon symbol as a contrast to the "fork in the road" offered by the government, which tried to incentivize workers to leave under a deferred resignation program. A meme of a stapler referencing the cult-classic movie "Office Space" and daring someone to "come and take it" circulated online. And then there's good old-fashioned unionizing.

"This convinced me to join the union at my agency right away, and convince four coworkers to join too," a longtime federal worker said, adding that DOGE has been the "best thing" to ever happen to union membership.

Booing, ignoring emails, and sharing pronouns

BI heard it from dozens of federal workers in recent weeks: They didn't like the emails asking them to list their accomplishments from the past week. A worker at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that sent the Musk-inspired email, said that information sharing is "huge" among the federal workforce right now — including "ways to write your stupid bullet points."

One employee said that at a NASA town hall, workers booed a director who didn't have clear guidance on how to respond. A Department of Defense worker said, "A lot of people reported the emails as phishing."

While many federal agencies told workers that they were not required to respond to the first email, OPM sent a second email a week later — and some agencies shifted to requiring responses. A Health and Human Services worker was one of a few who said they'll continue to refuse to respond.

Several workers described protests against the administration's new policies regarding DEI and gender, as workers were asked to strip pronouns from their email signatures. Some NASA workers have been introducing themselves with their pronouns during town halls and company meetings, the NASA employee said, and some have pushed back on the agency taking down "gender neutral" signs on restrooms by putting their own signs up. One worker at the Social Security Administration said that while they can't include "she/her" in their email signature, they can still wear a button that says it.

"As soon as DEI stuff came down in the offices, it went up in our cubicles," the SSA worker said. "I know I went out and bought a Trans pride flag for my cubicle as soon as they made us only list male/female."

The NASA worker said that while they suspect there might be "DOGE sympathizers" in upper management, most of their coworkers are "pretty upset and have no problem asking about how to deal with DOGE." An OPM worker said they are being careful because they assume they're being monitored but that everyone they know has been "uniformly appalled." One Department of Defense worker said a coworker tried challenging them to a fight after overhearing them discuss their Trump-related fears.

"I try to be conscious about who I voice my opinions around," they said.

Potential legal action has also helped some employees resist the administration's changes. The OPM worker said that discussing how to file appeals with other employees has been unifying, and the HHS worker is hopeful that there will be further class actions to counter "the emotional distress, hostile work environment, and harassment."

Unions for federal workers filed a lawsuit on February 19 to block the Trump administration's firing of probationary federal workers, or workers who have typically been on the job for under one year. American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a statement that the administration "has abused the probationary period to conduct a chaotic, ill-informed, and politically-driven firing spree."

But for now, workers are engaging in moments of pushback: One federal worker is using their email signature to resist, signing off every email with a quote on the limits of OPM's power.

And the HHS worker is doing the most prudent thing for their career: "I've been trying to work business as usual," they said. "But I've also been applying to other jobs."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

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• The Office of Personnel Management said it can now process retirement applications digitally.
• For decades, the US government has processed retirement paperwork in a mine in Pennsylvania.
• The facility has been in the crosshairs of the DOGE office.

In a video promoted by the White House DOGE office, the Office of Personnel Management said it can now process pensions entirely digitally — and within two days.

For decades, OPM has stored and processed federal retirement paperwork in a limestone mine. The US government started storing records in the underground facility in the 1960s.

In a video update shared on Thursday by the OPM, Chuck Ezell, OPM's interim director, said that the Trump administration had approached OPM "about a week ago" with the one-week "challenge" to process a federal retiree's application "end-to-end digitally without printing anything on paper."

Kimya Lee, OPM's associate deputy director for enterprise enablement, said in the video that they "got it done in record time within two days without printing one piece of paper."

DOGE's de facto leader Elon Musk highlighted the issue in a press conference earlier this month. Musk criticized the reliance on paper records and said the speed of the mine's elevator shaft determined how fast people could retire.

"The elevator breaks down sometimes, and nobody can retire," Musk said, adding: "Doesn't that sound crazy?"

The facility holds 26,000 filing cabinets containing 400 million retiree documents, and applications are still largely processed by hand — a system that can take months.

"Instead of working in a mineshaft, carrying manila envelopes to boxes in a mine, you could do practically anything else, and you would add to the goods and services of the United States in a more useful way," Musk said of those working there.

The OPM didn't immediately reply to Business Insider's request for comment.

In an X post on Friday, DOGE praised the development, calling it "a great improvement from the current paper solution taking multiple months."

Musk has said that, due to the mine's manual systems, only about 10,000 retirees' paperwork can be processed in a month.

DOGE's X account later said that more than 700 employees work 230 feet underground to process applications.

Musk's comments came as the Trump White House continues its moves to radically overhaul the federal workforce, fueling anxiety among those who work there.

"They're nervous for their jobs obviously because their heads are on the cutting block," a senior OPM source told Business Insider on condition of anonymity.

"This administration has been very black and white the day they walked through the door about what they were going to do," they added.

A 2014 Washington Post report said 600 OPM workers processed federal employees' retirement papers by hand at the site, passing thousands of case files from cavern to cavern.

The outlet said successive administrations have tried and failed to digitize the process.

The OPM source told BI that fully digitizing all the mine records would be an "incredibly expensive, multi-year, if not decade-long, project."

They also said closing the mine would damage the local economy.

The mine is in a "really, really rural area in the middle of Western Pennsylvania," they told BI. "It's not like there's a lot of opportunity in the area."

• Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the government stores key retirement paperwork in a converted mine.
• The limestone mine is real, and is in the Department of Government Efficiency's crosshairs.
• The US government started storing records in the underground facility in the 1960s.

A converted mine located in Pennsylvania and used to store and process federal retirement paperwork is actually real, and is now under threat.

In a press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Elon Musk said that the US government stores and processes all retirement paperwork in a limestone mine.

"The elevator breaks down sometimes, and nobody can retire," Musk said, adding: "Doesn't that sound crazy?"

Musk's comments came as the Trump White House continues its moves to radically alter the federal workforce.

Musk said they were trying to "right-size" the federal bureaucracy and that getting people to retire early on full benefits was a good thing.

But he added: "We were told the most number of people that could retire possibly in a month is 10,000 because all the retirement paperwork is written down on a piece of paper, then it goes down a mine."

Musk said that "instead of working in a mineshaft, carrying manila envelopes to boxes in a mine, you could do practically anything else, and you would add to the goods and services of the United States in a more useful way."

The Department of Government Efficiency's X account later published photos of the facility.

It said more than 700 employees work 230 feet underground to process about 10,000 federal employee retirement applications a month, adding that the process can take several months.

According to a 2014 Washington Post report, 600 Office of Personnel Management workers process federal employees' retirement papers by hand at the site, passing thousands of case files from cavern to cavern.

The manual process continues to operate due to successive administrations' failures to automate it, the outlet reported, delaying how fast workers can receive their full retirement benefits.

In an interview last year with Federal News Network, OPM's then-CEO said the agency was testing an online platform for retirement applications, but he said it would take "many years" to implement.

The Office of Personnel Management didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A 2015 prospectus of the facility by the General Services Administration said the mine, which has been occupied by the OPM since 1970, is located in Boyers, Pennsylvania, and has about 580,000 rentable square feet.

The mine was originally owned by US Steel, which excavated the site from 1902 to 1952, before the US government started storing records there in 1960, according to the Center for Land Use Interpretation.

Iron Mountain, a global management and storage service provider, acquired the mine's owner in 1998, it said, and continues to lease space in its underground facility to the US government.

Iron Mountain didn't reply to a request for comment.

In 2015, the GSA warned that parts of the mine's ceiling were degrading. It proposed acquiring a new space to provide a "long-term solution" for federal agencies operating in the mine. It is unclear if anything came of that proposal.

The mine is also used to store films and documents for private companies and groups, including the Corbis photographic collection Bill Gates sold to Visual China Group in 2016.

• Elon Musk is calling himself "White House Tech Support" in his bio on X, formerly Twitter.
• Through DOGE, he has access to systems containing sensitive information on many Americans.
• It's not the first time Musk has experimented with his bio on X, which he owns.

What does Elon Musk's work at DOGE entail? If we're to believe his new bio on X, he's "White House Tech Support."

Musk recently changed his bio on the platform formerly known as Twitter — which he owns — to reflect his position at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which he leads.

The change comes amid concern from lawmakers and watchdog organizations about Musk's access through DOGE to systems containing sensitive information on millions of Americans.

The Treasury Department on Wednesday night agreed not to directly share the financial data of millions of Americans with DOGE, and said Musk's DOGE team has "read-only" access to the Treasury's federal payment system. Democratic lawmakers have voiced concerns that access could allow DOGE to restrict the disbursement of federal funds, such as tax refunds and Social Security and Medicare benefits.

On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order establishing DOGE with the purpose of "modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity." Musk, who was a vocal supporter of Trump's presidential campaign and contributed more than $200 million toward getting Trump and other Republican candidates elected, leads DOGE.

Its responsibilities include carrying out a "Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems," according to the executive order.

The order further states that DOGE should have "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems." It adds that DOGE "shall adhere to rigorous data protection standards."

Musk has had fun experimenting with different nicknames on X in the past. He's nicknamed himself "Technoking" after calling himself "Technoking of Tesla" in a regulatory filing.

Another time, he adopted the name "Mr. Tweet" after a lawyer accidentally called him that in court during a case brought by Tesla shareholders alleging he committed securities fraud with his 2018 tweet saying he had "funding secured" to take the carmaker private.

Around the time he purchased Twitter in 2022, he changed his bio to "Chief Twit."

• With a deadline looming to accept a buyout, federal workers might look to the corporate sector.
• Career coaches have been hearing from federal workers who wanted to beef up their résumés.
• They advised networking and making résumé adjustments for transitioning to private-sector roles.

Laura Labovich, who runs an outplacement firm in the Washington, DC, area, has been hearing from government workers like never before.

With a deadline looming for federal employees to accept a buyout offer, she has nearly two dozen consultations with such workers scheduled in the coming weeks.

Ordinarily, Labovich might only have a handful a year.

She said that, unlike in the past, some employees weren't saying they were frustrated by difficulties in getting a promotion or pay.

"They just say, 'I want to leave,'" Labovich told Business Insider.

The Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory group run by Elon Musk, has been looking for ways to slash federal spending. Federal workers are likely facing a February deadline to offer their resignations and continue to be paid through September.

For government workers trying to dodge the DOGE — or who may just have philosophical differences with the new administration — landing a job in the private sector might require a different tack than getting ahead in government, career experts told BI.

The 'hidden job market'

To get started, Labovich said, workers should try to talk to people who are employed where they may want to work; they should focus on finding people and companies instead of open jobs.

So, for someone who wants to work in a marketing department, making contact through LinkedIn or being introduced by professional contacts with people who work in that unit may help someone stand out. Job seekers could ask to set up a brief call to learn more about the department, she said.

Labovich said that's important because of what's referred to as the "hidden job market." Unlike in government, where the race for a job often starts once a role is posted, it's better to be on a hiring manager's radar before a posting goes up in the private sector, she said.

Beyond going big on networking, Labovich said, one of the biggest changes in looking for a private-sector job will be the length of your résumé. She said that, unlike federal CVs that might run four to six pages, someone looking for a private-sector job should typically keep the document to two pages unless it's for a C-suite position.

Ayanna Jackson, who founded and runs AEJ Consulting, an executive coaching and career-development firm in metro Washington, DC, offered similar advice about what corporate recruiters want: "They're going to give you six to nine seconds, tops, to scroll two pages max," she said.

Don't just rely on AI

Jackson advised against solely relying on artificial-intelligence tools to compress a résumé that was a half-dozen pages into two. AI, she said, could introduce errors and leave a résumé bloated with empty phrases and inaccurate metrics.

"You've got to articulate your specific results," Jackson said.

For those remaking résumés for work outside the government, Jackson said it's important to avoid relying on acronyms or namechecking obscure agencies that hiring managers and recruiters might not know.

She recommended that those looking for work focus on soft skills that many employers say they want. This includes the ability to influence, communicate ideas, and solve problems.

Jackson also said getting coaching before an interview is a good idea, especially for candidates who haven't gone through the interview process in a long time. She said workers must be ready to tell their stories without rambling and able to demonstrate how they achieved goals and overcame obstacles.

Both Jackson and Labovich recommended that job seekers use the STAR method for answering questions. This involves describing the situation or task the worker faced, the action they took, and the results.

Consider other factors

Richard Poulson, a partner at the law firm Willig, Williams & Davidson in Philadelphia, told BI there could be unique factors that government workers might have to consider.

Poulson, who specializes in issues involving public-safety workers, said that when public-sector workers move to the private sector — in effect from being a regulator to the one being regulated — it might not be possible to work in the same field, with the same client, or on the same projects for some time.

"There may be restrictions in effect there," he said. "People need to make sure that they've got their eyes wide open before they make those decisions."

Stepped-up job growth in the private sector could worsen problems that some government agencies have had in attracting people, Poulson said.

He said he'd advise public-sector workers with a choice to consider how careers in government often span many power shifts in politics. Poulson also suggested that government workers focus on the importance of what they do.

"That tends to weigh more than the changes in administration that happen every few years," he said.

Are you a government worker, or do you have something to share about what you're seeing in the workplace? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our workplace team from a nonwork device at [email protected] with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers.

An earlier version of this story appeared on November 19, 2024.

• Elon Musk's $44 billion Twitter buyout was seen by many as overpriced.
• However, the social media platform has helped give Musk close access to the Trump administration.
• Twitter, now X, has also been a valuable data source for Musk's $50 billion startup xAI.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, it was panned as one of the worst tech acquisitions in history. Two years, an election, and a generative AI boom later, it's starting to look like more of a bargain.

Shortly after the deal closed in October 2022, Wedbush Securities tech analyst Dan Ives said it would "go down as one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in the history of M&A deals on the Street."

On paper, the $13 billion that Musk borrowed to buy Twitter, now X, has turned into the worst merger-finance deal for banks since the 2008 financial crisis.

Yet the deal has provided significant benefits for Musk. He now wields considerable influence in the incoming Trump administration after using X to throw his support behind the former president's reelection.

Not only has X served as Musk's political megaphone, but it's also been a lucrative source of training data for one of the billionaire's other ventures: xAI, the startup that's rocketed to a $50 billion valuation just 16 months after launch.

That fresh valuation means xAI has surpassed Musk's purchase price for X. It came with a $5 billion funding round, which The Wall Street Journal reported was backed by the Qatar Investment Authority and Sequoia Capital.

Musk launched xAI in July 2023 as a springboard to get in the AI race after cofounding and then leaving ChatGPT maker OpenAI due to differences with its CEO, Sam Altman.

The startup has made up significant ground on its rivals by using X as a source of third-party data, one of the key avenues for training large language models.

In late 2023, Musk blocked other organizations from scraping X data for free — but gave xAI continued access. That gave xAI a crucial boost.

Ellen Keenan O'Malley, a senior associate at intellectual property law firm EIP, told Business Insider that xAI's access to "third-party information through X is the potential kryptonite to ChatGPT's edge" and a potential driver behind the rising valuation of Musk's startup.

Although the number of X users has been falling, it had 600 million monthly active users as of May, according to Musk.

"This is a level that neither OpenAI nor any other third party can access, or at least not as easily, which provides a huge competitive edge and therefore makes xAI a valuable company," added O'Malley.

Access to 0.3% of X's data costs around $500,000 annually, which prices many out, Wired previously reported.

"Clearly, X's or indeed any social media platform's data is valuable," Advika Jalan, head of research at MMC Ventures, told BI.

X marks the spot in the Musk-Trump alliance

Musk spent at least $119 million on a political action committee to support Trump's campaign.

X played a large role, too. Musk has long been an avid poster on X, but he ramped up the volume during the election cycle. Analysis by The Economist found that the share of Musk's political posts on X has risen from less than 4% in 2016 to over 13% this year. Since endorsing Trump, has has posted more than 100 times on some days to his more than 200 million followers.

A study published by the Queensland University of Technology this month suggested that Musk may have tweaked X's algorithm to boost the reach of his and other Republican-leaning accounts.

Shmuel Chafets, cofounder of venture capital firm Target Global, told Business Insider that "X has become a powerful tool" in Musk's ecosystem, adding that it serves "as a platform for promotion and influence, similar to how Warren Buffett leverages the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting and his shareholder letters."

X didn't always seem destined to attain such influence in Musk's hands.

In the months and years following Musk's takeover, an advertiser revolt ensued over content moderation concerns, the company laid off about 80% of staff, and service outages disrupted users.

Musk's co-investors have been writing down the value of their X stakes in the two years since. In September, Fidelity, one of its investors, slashed the value of its holding, giving X an implied valuation of $9.4 billion.

Yet Musk's support for Trump, which came after an assassination attempt against the president-elect at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, gives the tech billionaire political sway that is hard to put a price on.

Musk, who Trump said was a "super genius" in his victory speech at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, was selected by the president-elect to run a new Department of Government Efficiency alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran in the 2024 Republican primary.

DOGE will be a "threat to bureaucracy," according to Musk, whose remit at the newly formed department will include driving $2 trillion in federal spending cuts and slashing regulations he deems superfluous and in the way of his corporate empire. As one SpaceX official told Reuters, Musk "sees the Trump administration as the vehicle for getting rid of as many regulations as he can, so he can do whatever he wants, as fast as he wants."

Since Trump's election win, the billionaire has been seen side-by-side with the president-elect at a UFC fight night while reportedly joining his calls to leaders like Volodymyr Zelensky and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

X-odus

How long X maintains a Musk-Trump bromance and supports xAI's growth remains to be seen.

Musk, for instance, isn't always getting his preference for cabinet appointments chosen by Trump; his choice of Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick as Treasury secretary was shunned for Trump's pick Scott Bessent, dismissed by Musk as a "business-as-usual choice."

X also faces legal challenges in which judges have expressed concerns over gatekeeping user data. In May, a federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by X against Israeli firm Bright Data. X claimed Bright Data was "using elaborate technical measures to evade X Corp.'s anti-scraping technology."

Earlier this month, X partially revived its suit against Bright Data. Should X be unsuccessful, it would raise questions about the value of the X to xAI data pipeline.

Elsewhere, the renewed interest in X rivals like Bluesky and Threads risks seeing Musk's social media site lose users who are both key for advertising revenue and providing vital sources of data for training future models at xAI. X is now in a position where "lots of people hate it because they see it as being a weaponized instrument of MAGA," Calum Chace, cofounder of AI startup Conscium, told BI.

For now, though, Musk has a powerful tool in his hands with X.

"Critics may enjoy pointing out his missteps, but Musk's ability to leverage X for both personal and business purposes reinforces his reputation as a visionary entrepreneur who consistently thinks several steps ahead of his contemporaries," said Target Global's Chafets.

"Ultimately, this deal could prove highly lucrative if he decides to sell or take the company public in the future."

Elon Musk is calling F-35 makers "idiots" for building manned jets while drone technology soars. Here's what experts say on the subject.

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of DOGE, are figuring out how to cut the federal government.
• Both men admire Javier Milei, the Argentine leader elected on a pledge to slash the state.
• Milei closed nine ministries, firing thousands of officials, and the economy is feeling the effects.

About a year ago, standing in front of a whiteboard with a gleam in his eye, Javier Milei started pulling apart Argentina's government.

"Ministry of Culture — Out! Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development — Out!" he yelled with escalating joy, shredding an org chart of the state.

Soon after, he was elected his nation's president and started to make good on his program of massive spending cuts.

Watching admiringly were Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, the men now charged with a similar task in the US.

Both men have praised Milei repeatedly, seeing in him a model for their Department of Government Efficiency.

So, how has Milei's hack-and-slash agenda played out? And what could it mean for the federal government?

'Just cut to the chase'

Milei's program was swift and brutal.

Within days of taking office, Milei shut down half of the country's 18 ministries by presidential decree.

He fired some 25,000 public employees, and is working through 75,000 more.

Cuts of a similar scale in the US, with about seven times Argentina's population, would mean shedding 700,000 government workers.

Milei also hacked back the Argentine equivalent of Social Security by an estimated third, canceled infrastructure projects, and froze budgets at the surviving ministries.

This week, in an interview with the podcaster Lex Fridman, Milei said DOGE should act with speed too.

When prompted for advice, he said, "Just cut to the chase."

Milei described a physical timer in Argetina's deregulation ministry meant to focus minds by counting down days.

Harsh medicine

His measures helped tame a crisis: Argentina's inflation was 25.5% when Milei took office, and as of October, it was 2.7%.

The government ran its first surplus in 12 years, and trimmed tens of billions from its national debt.

It also spurred a recession and mass civil unrest as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and unions held regular strikes across the country.

Economists told Business Insider that major differences in the US and Argentine economies make the two tough to compare.

First — Milei took power in an economic meltdown where inflation of 25.5% was hammering the economy.

Milei solved that, said Maria Victoria Murillo, director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University.

But "the consequence was a deep recession that facilitated controlling inflation but has been very painful and is accepted because inflation was terrible and people do not want to go back."

"I am not certain that would be the case in the US," she said.

Kimberley Sperrfechter, Capital Economics' Latin America Economist, noted that President-elect Donald Trump's policies mostly point to more state spending, not less. He explicitly ruled out changes to Social Security, the government's single biggest budget item.

The US balance of power is also different. Milei was able to make his changes mostly by executive decree. As BI reported, Trump would have to contend with Congress, where Republicans have only slender majorities.

The toast of Mar-a-Lago

DOGE's leaders don't seem blind to that — in August, Ramaswamy touted Milei as an inspiration but said Argentina was "much less complicated" an economy to overhaul.

It hasn't dimmed Milei's popularity in Trumpworld.

Milei was a guest of Trump's at Mar-a-Lago, the first world leader to meet him since his election victory, where he called his victory "the greatest political comeback in history."

On the Fridman podcast, Milei advised Musk and Ramaswamy to go "all the way" in cutting US federal spending.

Since Election Day, Ramaswamy and Musk have posted about Milei more than a dozen times: DOGE is readying its work with at least one eye on Buenos Aires.

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, co-heads of DOGE, are working out how to cut the federal government.
• Javier Milei, the Argentine leader who both men have praised, advised cutting to 'the very limit.'
• Milei closed nine ministries, firing thousands of officials, and cut spending by an estimated 31%.

Argentina's president says Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy should all go "all the way" in cutting US federal spending.

Javier Milei made the comments in an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast released on Tuesday.

"My advice would be for them to go all the way, to push it to the very limit, and do not give up," he said. "Do not let down their guard."

Milei has presided over sweeping spending cuts in Argentina, firing tens of thousands of public employees, shutting down half the country's 18 ministries, and cutting state spending by an estimated 31% in his first 10 months in office.

The measures have helped bring inflation down from 25.5% when he took office in December 2023 to 2.7% in October.

But they have also ignited a recession and mass civil unrest, with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets and unions holding regular strikes across the country.

"Just cut to the chase. Cut to the chase," Milei told Fridman when asked what advice he had for Musk and Ramaswamy.

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have repeatedly praised Milei and taken inspiration from him for their Department of Government Efficiency.

On Wednesday, Musk said Argentina had made "impressive progress,'" while Ramaswamy said on Monday that the US needed "Milei-style cuts on steroids."

On Sunday, Ramaswamy told Fox News that he expected the wholesale closure of some federal agencies — a measure that mirrors that taken by Milei in Argentina.

Milei and Musk have long spoken admiringly of one another and were together at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort last week.

The two men met for the first time in April at Musk's Tesla plant in Austin, where they discussed free markets and their opposition to bureaucracy, according to a statement from Milei's office.

In an X post in September, Musk said his companies were "actively" looking for ways to invest in and support Argentina after the two men met on the sidelines of a United Nations summit in New York held at the time.

While Milei has achieved most of his sweeping cuts via executive decree, US spending cuts would likely involve working with Congress, where Republicans will hold just a slim majority.