Elon Musk voiced a negative retrospective view of his grand government reform project, the Department of Government Efficiency, saying he wouldn’t do it again if given the chance.
In an interview on Katie Miller’s podcast, Musk was asked if, knowing what he knows now, he would do DOGE again.
“I mean, no, I don’t think so,” he answered.
The tech mogul appeared overall unenthusiastic about the group’s work, saying they were “a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful,” he said, adding that the group stopped billions in payments that “really just made no sense.”
However, his overall judgement was that his efforts would have been much more productive elsewhere, and the backlash wasn’t worth the investment.
“I mean, the thing is, like, I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically … worked on my companies,” Musk said, adding that “they wouldn’t have been burning the cars,” referring to the wave of vandalism against Tesla vehicles and property earlier this year.
Musk spent most of the first half of 2025 as the most visible official in the Trump administration, attempting to enact one of the most long-promised goals of conservatives — shrinking the federal government. Legal challenges, bureaucratic opposition, poor press, public backlash, and unfamiliarity with the inner workings of government hampered his efforts, and in June, the tech mogul and President Donald Trump’s relationship blew up in spectacular fashion. Although the two have since made up, Musk has largely stepped away from the political arena, outside of commentary on X.
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His interview with Miller, published on Tuesday, highlighted his disillusionment with DOGE and work with the government in general. When asked if he had become disillusioned with Washington, D.C., Musk answered, “Well, I wouldn’t say I was super illusioned to begin with.”
Musk began DOGE promising to cut $2 trillion in government waste, but the group’s website currently boasts just $214 billion saved as operations wind down.