Less than a full year into Donald Trump‘s second term, Elon Musk already regrets the time he spent running DOGE.
The Tesla head and mega-billionaire served under Trump as the head of the quasi-agency tasked with slashing government spending. In practice, DOGE took a hacksaw to the federal workforce and US foreign aid without bothering to check what many of those employees and funds did. Speaking to former DOGE spokesperson Katie Miller on her podcast, Musk said that his tenure in the Trump administration was “somewhat successful,” before balking at a hypothetical opportunity to go back in time and lead the effort again.
“I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built, you know, worked on my companies ” he said.
Musk’s time at the agency was tumultuous, as the political novice quickly realized that insiders were not impressed by his chainsaw-wielding shtick. After inflicting some serious damage in its early days, Musk lost his biggest booster after getting into a spat with the president and his project went away quietly.
Musk pointed to the real-world backlash against Tesla while he worked with the administration. In addition to tumbling sales numbers and falling stock prices, several protestors damaged auto dealerships to vent frustrations over the billionaire’s involvement with Trump admin layoffs.
