Niamh Shackleton
Elon Musk has reflected on his is time as a government official and heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
At the start of the year, SpaceX founder Musk became a 'special government employee' and served in Trump's administration as the head of DOGE, which was created to cut back on unnecessary government spending.
His hiring came at a time Musk was buddies with the president, but things turned sour between the pair after the tech mogul criticized Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' shortly before his exit from his public role.
While some believed his departure was a result of his public criticism of Trump's bill and ongoing tension between the pair, Musk implied otherwise.
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Announcing his exit at the time, the multi-billionaire penned on Twitter: "As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
"The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government."
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However, it appears as if DOGE's mission hasn't 'strengthened over time' as Musk said it would, as the department quietly disbanded late November eight months earlier than planned.
Reuters asked the White House about the status of DOGE last month and Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told the outlet 'that doesn't exist'. Kupor added that DOGE is no longer a 'centralized entity'.
Following the department's demise, Musk sat down with Katie Millar to be interviewed on her podcast.
When asked if he thinks DOGE was successful, the Tesla CEO said: "We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful. I mean, we stopped a lot funding that just really made no sense and was entirely wasteful."
He went on to say that there were allegedly $100 - $200 billion of 'zombie payments' being made each year so they made changes to the treasury computers that meant payment had be to explained before the money went out.
Millar proceeded to ask Musk for her next question: "Would you do DOGE again knowing what you know now?"
"Instead of doing DOGE, I would have worked on my companies," he replied, in a roundabout way of saying 'no'.
Musk added that they 'wouldn't have been burning the cars' if he hadn't joined DOGE in reference to the attacks people carried out on Tesla vehicles in protest to his government work.