In an interview with Fox’s Larry Kudlow on Monday, billionaire Elon Musk admitted that his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Donald Trump’s initiative to reduce federal spending, is making it tougher to run his many businesses: X, Tesla, xAI, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, and Starlink.
“How are you running your other businesses?” Kudlow asked at one point.
“With great difficulty,” Musk replied. “Frankly, I can’t believe I’m here doing this.”
Musk and DOGE, which has around 100 staffers — a number that Musk expects to climb to 200 — have been criticized for overpromising and underdelivering on spending cuts across U.S government agencies. Government contracting experts say that DOGE’s online record of reductions contains inaccurate information and inflates claims of “savings” by including misleading math about contract cancellations.
DOGE has also put the U.S.’s data and computing infrastructure at risk through its work, according to cybersecurity analysts. DOGE staffers, some of whom have little experience working with government systems, have reportedly accessed agency data through insecure means and copied that data onto unprotected servers.
While Musk complains that his work advising DOGE has stretched him thin, the billionaire has been accused of using the initiative to weaken regulations that oversee his business ventures.
DOGE has gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was poised to expand oversight of peer-to-peer payment systems, including X’s upcoming virtual wallet product. It has reduced staff at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which had opened probes into the dangers posed by Tesla’s assisted driving technologies. Elsewhere, DOGE has fired probationary employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, which had proposed penalties for safety violations at SpaceX. And DOGE has pushed for significant staff cuts at the Securities and Exchange Commission, with which Musk has a long-running feud.
When asked by Kudlow if he would extend his involvement in DOGE by “another year,” Musk said, “Yeah.”
“We’re just getting things done, as opposed to writing a report,” Musk added. “Like, reports don’t mean anything. You’ve got to actually take action.”
