Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known for making controversial or “careless” comments, but as The Guardian reports, he recently made a shocking admission with sincerity.
On Dec. 9, Musk appeared on a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy. During that appearance, the Tesla CEO made a series of highly unusual statements, saying that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he previously ran, had only been “modestly successful.” Miller asked Musk if he would do it again, and he said he wouldn’t.
“I think basically I wouldn’t do DOGE and work on my company. They wouldn’t burn the cars,” Musk said of Tesla’s vandalism.
In 2025, Musk’s participation in American politics is no longer limited to funding, but is actively involved in government affairs.
Musk first proposed the idea of ​​a “Government Efficiency” department in August 2024, and on January 20, the concept officially became the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to various reports, what followed was an immediate and crazy spending cut by the government. DOGE, whose employees are as young as 19 and no older than 25, has been compared to a “wrecking ball.”
Within a week, more than two million federal civil servants received an email forcing them to resign and “move to more productive jobs in the private sector.”
Musk has repeatedly pledged to cut $1 trillion worth of funding in Washington, which he insists is “waste, fraud and abuse” despite no evidence of the alleged problems. One of DOGE’s first high-profile actions was to decommission the United States Agency for International Development, a humanitarian aid agency.
On February 3, Musk posted on
Backlash quickly emerged as food aid was burned rather than distributed. This spring, Microsoft founder Bill Gates described DOGE’s targeting of USAID as “the killing of the world’s poorest children by the richest people in the world.”
Critical funding appropriated by Congress is frozen, ongoing programs are canceled, and DOGE’s activities at the Social Security Administration impact spending and potentially harm Americans’ data.
As the chaos unfolded, Musk emphasized his public-facing role even as funding for key agencies like the National Weather Service was cut. The backlash was swift, and not limited to the United States.
Musk’s role as chief executive of Tesla has also been prominent, with the electric carmaker’s dealerships facing protests and cars and charging stations vandalized.
Sales fell immediately in the U.S. and Europe, and a subsequent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research quantified the outsized economic impact of Musk’s actions on the Tesla brand.
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