SAC.đ„ââNever Againâ: Elon Musk Admits DOGE Was a Mistake, Questions âChainsawâ Plan to Cut Governmentâ
Elon Musk says heâs no longer convinced his crusade to clean up government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency â better known as DOGE â was worth the chaos it unleashed.
Musk admitted heâs deeply unsure whether his high-profile stint running Washingtonâs most meme-able agency actually worked, in a wide-ranging â and, at times, philosophical â interview on âThe Katie Miller Podcast.â
âWeâre a little bit successful. Weâre somewhat successful,â the Tesla founder said when Miller asked if DOGE achieved what heâd hoped.

But he quickly undercut the praise, lamenting how entrenched the waste was.
âThere was, like, probably $100, maybe $200 billion worth of zombie payments per year,â he said, noting DOGE shut down only a fraction of it.
The SpaceX CEO said cutting off even that much cash came with serious blowback.
âIf you stop money going to political corruption, they will lash out big time,â he explained. âThey really want the money to keep flowing.â

When Miller asked point-blank whether heâd do DOGE again, Musk hesitated.
âI mean, no, I donât think so,â he admitted. âI think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically ⊠worked on my companies, essentially.â
He added that in another timeline, without the political storm, âthe cars â they wouldnât have been burning the cars.â

The tech mogul was referring to a violent outbreak of vandalism on Tesla vehicles earlier this year after he began working with the second Trump administration.
Musk also said joining Washington never gave him any illusions.
He blasted what he called âmassive transfer paymentsâ to migrants and claimed the system creates a âgigantic money magnetâ that encourages people to come to the US.

âI wouldnât say I was super illusioned to begin with,â he shrugged, before launching into a blistering critique of government spending.
Despite the heavy political talk, the X owner frequently veered into the personal. He confessed that âAI nightmaresâ still jolt him awake â âmany days in a row,â he said â and heâs running life on six hours of sleep.
When asked what actually keeps him up, Musk deadpanned: âWhy do I wake up in nightmares? Oh, AI. Yeah.â


He insisted he has no âirrational fears,â saying, âIf I find an irrational fear, I ⊠squelch it. Fear is the mind killer.â
But even the worldâs richest man has limits â especially in public. Musk said he canât do anything âwhere thereâs the general publicâ because of instant selfie mobs and âserious security issues,â especially after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
âLife is on a hardcore mode,â he said. âYou make one mistake, and youâre dead.â
In the end, Muskâs uncertainty about DOGE hung over the conversation with Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Trumpâs top White House aides â but he hedged on whether he would return to the initiative if given a chance.
âI donât think so,â he mused. âKnowing what I know now.â
