Elon Musk has played down the achievements of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the cost-cutting initiative he headed for US President Donald Trump, saying the unit managed only limited gains before it folded. Speaking on a podcast with former Trump official Katie Miller on Tuesday (local time), the Tesla chief said the experience is not one he would repeat.
Musk, a major financial supporter of Trump’s election campaign and later a close adviser in the White House, was put in charge of DOGE during the first five months of Trump’s second term. The unit was created to target cuts across federal budgets and reduce the government’s workforce, but Musk said the effect was modest.
“We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful. We stopped a lot of funding that really just made no sense, that was entirely wasteful,” he said. But he added that the role drew a backlash aimed not just at him but at Tesla, including incidents where cars were vandalised.
“I think instead of doing Doge, I would have basically worked on my companies. And they wouldn't have been burning the cars,” he said.
Asked whether he would take on the leadership of DOGE again, he replied, “No, I don’t think so.”
Musk’s time with the unit also raised concerns among Tesla investors, who questioned whether he could remain focused on the company at a point when its sales growth had begun to slow.
His relationship with Trump later soured publicly due to disagreements over the president’s sweeping tax and spending plan, though more recent interactions have suggested the two may be easing tensions, Reuters reported.
Doge itself has now shut down. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier in the month that the unit had been disbanded with eight months still left in its mandate.
Doge claimed it had cut tens of billions of dollars in federal spending, but outside analysts were unable to confirm the numbers because the team never released a detailed public breakdown of its cuts.
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