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Billionaire Elon Musk said he now believes that the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to clean up government waste wasn't worth its resulting chaos during an appearance on the Katie Miller Podcast released on Tuesday (December 9).
Musk, who was tasked to be the driving force in the DOGE efforts, admitted that he's unsure whether the agency actually worked during his interview with Miller.
“We’re a little bit successful. We’re somewhat successful,” Musk said when asked if the agency achieved his goals.
“There was, like, probably $100, maybe $200 billion worth of zombie payments per year,” he continued, acknowledging DOGE shut down only a fraction of it.
Musk added that cutting off any amount of money would be met with serious backlash.
“If you stop money going to political corruption, they will lash out big time,” he said. “They really want the money to keep flowing.”
Miller then asked Musk if he'd ever consider relaunching DOGE in the future.
“I mean, no, I don’t think so,” he responded. “I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically … worked on my companies, essentially.”
Musk then acknowledged the backlashed his Tesla brand faced when he focused on politics, claiming without such, "the cars -- they wouldn't have been burning the cars."
DOGE was shutdown with months remaining on its mandate, federal officials confirmed to Reuters in November.
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said when asked about the initiative's status earlier this month. President Donald Trump announced the creation of DOGE, which shares its name with the widely memed "dog coin" cryptocurrency, on November 12, 2024, and selected Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the department.
“Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence,” Trump wrote at the time on his Truth Social account. “I am confident they will succeed!”
Ramaswamy eventually bowed out of the role to instead focus on the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial election, confirming his departure on Inauguration Day. Musk served as the initiative's driving force, though not its formal leader, and DOGE rapidly shrunk federal agencies.
“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” Musk said while holding a chainsaw gifted to him by Argentina President Javier Milei at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February.
Musk left his role as a special government employee to the Trump administration in May in accordance with the rule that they can only serve 130 days of a 365-day period. Musk and Trump later had a public falling out over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, though the two have since seemed to reconcile, conversing at Conservative political activists Charlie Kirk's funeral in September prior to Musk attending a White House dinner honoring Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on November 18.