Elon Musk Is Now Going After a Blind Person Who Went After DOGE in Public

Whenever you hear a story about Elon Musk, it's worth remembering that this is the richest man in the world. He could be doing anything with his time. Right now, though, he's working in the White House, and seems to be running roughshod over huge parts of the federal government in the name of efficiency.

He also spends plenty of time on X and recently used that massive platform (which he owns) to go after someone who went after the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. That person is blind, and many want to know what Musk said about him. Here's what we know.

The conflict started after Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, who works at the Project on Government Oversight and happens to be blind, criticized Musk's DOGE in testimony before the House Oversight Committee in early February. In his testimony, Hedtler-Gaudette suggested that there were already groups dedicated to making sure that the federal government works efficiently, suggesting that DOGE may actually be harmful.

In response, Musk first reposted an X post that said, “Blind director of watchdog group funded by George Soros testifies that he does not see widespread evidence of government waste," adding two laughing while crying emojis. In response to that initial tweet, many of Musk's acolytes piled on, pointing out how apparently hilarious it was that a blind man could not "see" government fraud.

Of course, Hedtler-Gaudette is not the wealthiest man in the world, so he does not have the ability to purchase an entire social media platform and then use it to go after anyone who attacks him or his efforts inside the federal government. Given his high profile, one might think that Musk would have grown a thicker skin and be more immune to public criticism, especially if he feels the work he's doing speaks for itself.

Instead, though, Musk and the people online who love him have made it their mission to ensure that no criticism of DOGE is left unchallenged. For his part, Hedtler-Gaudette seemed to understand that it was a little silly for someone with as much power as Musk to spend all of their time criticizing a 38-year-old expert on government waste who commands virtually no real power at all.

"He’s a fundamentally small person,” Hedtler-Gaudette said of Musk in an interview with The Washington Post. Of course, that's just one man's opinion, but at the moment, it seems to be supported by plenty of evidence.

Of course, Musk's attacks on this government watchdog are just one example of the ways he's used X for his own political ends.

What unites Musk and Trump more than anything else might be their observance of every personal slight, and their unwillingness to let anything slide. These are two men who have an immense amount of power, and both of them spend hours every day exacting every one of their tiny personal grudges online.