Elon Musk Reflects On DOGE

Elon Musk, in an interview on Wednesday, reflected on whether his time with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was worth it and whether he would do it again.

The Details: The tech billionaire joined Katie Miller, a former aide for President Donald Trump, on her podcast discussing DOGE, his companies, and even his changed view on God. One of Miller's opening questions asked whether DOGE was successful, with Musk responding by saying, "We're a little bit successful, we were somewhat successful." Musk explained that the department "stopped a lot of funding … that was just entirely wasteful," saying they stopped "like $100 to $200 billion of zombie payments per year," which was stopped by simply enforcing a payment code and requiring an explanation for the payment. Musk, when asked whether he would do it again, said "I don't know," going on to explain, "Instead of doing DOGE, I would have, basically, built — worked on my companies... and they wouldn't have been burning the cars." Miller agreed, saying, "You gave up a lot to do DOGE," to which Musk said, "If you stop money going to — political corruption, they will, they will lash out."

For Context: According to the DOGE website, the effort has saved the US an estimated $214 billion. The department was reportedly dismantled in November, with eight months left in its contract. However, the Trump administration said it is still running but is no longer a "centralized" organization. Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and X, formerly known as Twitter, left DOGE at the end of May, sparking partisan media coverage of the departure. Following Musk's departure, Musk and President Donald Trump also found themselves engaged in a war of words on social media over Trump's "big beautiful bill" and accusations from Musk over Trump's involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.

How The Media Covered It: Outlets on the right, like ZeroHedge (Lean Right bias) and Breitbart (Right), tended to highlight the attacks against Musk more than outlets on the left. ZeroHedge said the backlash came from the "DC swamp," explaining "left-wing NGOs and activist groups" were responsible for the attacks, mentioning "a sustained pressure campaign by the broader Democratic Party machine… which sought to damage the Tesla brand." Breitbart called the attacks "domestic terrorism." Conversely, outlets on the left, like The Guardian (Left), called the attacks "consumer protests" and Associated Press (Left) framed DOGE as a "controversial pop-up agency" that "shuttered" after Musk left. The Guardian also framed the work DOGE did around the more than 200,000 federal workers who were laid off, saying DOGE "created chaos and distress in the government machine."   

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