Elon Musk arrived in Washington as the most powerful political outsider ever, brimming with Silicon Valley swagger and bipartisan buy-in for the goal of streamlining the federal government.

• He's leaving with his reputation wounded, relationships severed, companies in crisis, fortune diminished — and little to show for it.

Why it matters: The disruption he unleashed inside the federal government — for better or for worse — will reverberate for decades, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.

📉 Zoom in: Musk's favorability ratings have plummeted.

• Tesla, battered by boycotts, protests and even firebombings, saw its net income plunge 71% in the first quarter.
• Musk's net worth has declined a staggering $122 billion this year — nearly matching the $160 billion in government savings claimed by DOGE, which budget experts believe is wildly inflated.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull, celebrated the end of "this dark chapter," but warned: "The brand damage caused by Musk in the White House/DOGE over the past few months will not go away."

✂️ Musk did take a wrecking ball to many parts of the federal government.

• DOGE shuttered USAID and has since gone agency by agency, infiltrating sensitive IT networks — including the Treasury Department's centralized payments system — in the name of rooting out "waste, fraud and abuse."
• But the savings it produced were nowhere near the $2 trillion Musk set as a target.
• And the DOGE team's credibility has been undermined by mistakes, duplications and false assumptions uploaded — then quietly deleted — on its online "wall of receipts."

😇 The other side: "I can't speak more highly about any individual," President Trump told reporters Wednesday, heaping praise on his billionaire adviser and top donor.

• "He was treated very unfairly by — I guess you'd call it the public, some of the public," Trump added. "He loves the country. He doesn't need to do this."

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"I'll hook you up to a f--king polygraph!" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shouted at the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

• Hegseth suspected the acting chairman, Christopher Grady, of leaking his plans to give Elon Musk a classified briefing about China.
• The SecDef's suspicions later turned to other officials, whom he also threatened with a polygraph.

⚡️ Behind the scenes: President Trump has stood by his embattled Defense secretary as controversies have mounted.

• Hegseth has fired several institutional fixtures, including his office's scheduler and multiple generals. But he has also booted many of the close allies who helped him through the confirmation process and came with him to the Pentagon.

The turmoil has left him without a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff or senior adviser, frustrating both Pentagon officials and GOP congressional offices who need to work with his office, per the Journal.

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The housing market is still in a major funk:

• Sales of existing homes fell by 5.9% in March, which is typically the beginning of the busiest home-buying season.
• That's the biggest one-month drop since 2022, and a sign that 2025 may be the third straight year of sluggish sales.

💡 Between the lines: Prices are high, interest rates are still at 6.8% and the economic volatility of the past few months has either wiped out some buyers' savings or scared them away from making a big move.

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The discussion around how the U.S. government spends money is clouded by the jargon of budget nerds, like "discretionary" vs. "mandatory" spending.

• Third Way, the center-left think tank, tried to boil it down into simple math and plain language.
• Its analysis shows that the government spends most of its money on payments directly to Americans (Social Security, most prominently), directly paying medical bills or helping people buy health insurance.

🧾 By the numbers: In Third Way's analysis, 31¢ of each dollar the government spends consists of checks to Americans, Axios' Neil Irwin reports.

• Some 14¢ went to help people buy health insurance or manage their benefits, and 12¢ toward medical bill payments.
• Another 13¢ went to interest on the national debt. Spending on wages for the military and federal law enforcement is a small sliver, a combined 3¢.

Everything else the government does adds up to 26¢.

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Increasing numbers of students and early-career employees are turning to chatbots to guide them through new or difficult situations, much like a human mentor would, Axios' Meg Morrone reports.

• Chatbots are available 24/7, and they can't judge you the way a human might.
• "Most of the interactions we're having with AI-enabled tutors are happening after 5 p.m., when a professor isn't even monitoring office hours," says Chris Hess, a former assistant professor at Butler University in Indiana who's now the director of AI strategy at Pearson.

🤝 Yes, but: Turning to chatbots instead of people for help, while less awkward, can deprive young adults of a key way to start building the professional networks they'll need later on.

• And asking endless questions without judgment or pushback isn't a proven way to learn.

The Trump Organization is encouraging supporters to "make a statement" with a "Trump 2028" hat, now available on the official Trump Store.

• President Trump said last month he's "not joking" about serving a third term. But the 22nd Amendment bars him from running again in 2028.

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The Trump administration says it wants to empower local schools by dismantling the Department of Education.

• The catch: Local school districts nationwide already are struggling with teacher shortages, falling test scores and rising turnover in leadership, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.

Many education advocates fear public schools' problems are likely to get worse as the Department of Education fades away — especially if resources decline.

• Keep reading.

University of Miami QB Cam Ward was the No. 1 pick in last night's NFL draft. He's headed to the Tennessee Titans, who need all the help they can get.

• "Save them, Cam Ward," The Athletic's Joe Rexrode wrote in his analysis of the pick.

🧀 This year's draft was held in Green Bay, Wis. — the NFL's smallest market.

• City officials were expecting up to 300,000 people to visit Green Bay for the event, Axios' Maxwell Millington reports. That's almost three times the city's population (~106,000).
• But officials said the home of the Packers was fully prepared to handle the crowds.

"You don't build a church for Easter Sunday," said Nick Meisner, VP of digital marketing and communications at Discover Green Bay.

• Latest on the draft.