Elon Musk says if he could rewind time, he would skip his stint in the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump-era “DOGE” office, calling the months he spent there “surreal” and only marginally effective.
Speaking on The Katie Miller Podcast, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the government cost-cutting initiative, launched at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, didn’t deliver the sweeping results he once expected. Musk, who helped lead the effort, now believes he should have stayed focused on his companies instead.
Musk said DOGE was born from internet name suggestions and aimed to curb wasteful government spending. He admitted the office did stop billions in “zombie payments”, unexplained or duplicated federal disbursements, simply by enforcing basic payment-tracking rules. But the impact fell far short of his early projection of $2 trillion in savings. Before stepping back in April, he revised the estimate to roughly $150 billion for fiscal year 2026. Independent reviews suggested a much smaller outcome, with a Politico analysis in August confirming $1.4 billion in canceled contracts and a modest reduction in federal spending before the department quietly shut down in July.
When asked if he’d do it again, Musk didn’t hesitate long: “No… I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically worked on my companies.”
His involvement in the Trump administration triggered fierce public backlash, including protests and vandalism targeting Tesla. He described the response as “a very strong reaction” to his attempt to curb what he called political corruption. Tesla investors also grew wary, arguing he was spreading himself too thin. The company’s stock, which had slumped early in the year, began recovering after Musk exited DOGE, eventually rising more than 17% in 2025.
Musk and Trump publicly feuded after Musk criticized the president’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” straining their relationship. But tensions later eased, and Musk was invited to a White House dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in November.
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