Billionaire Elon Musk now says he lost perspective during his time inside Donald Trump’s administration. The Tesla chief conceded he let his political involvement spiral beyond what he’d anticipated.
Elon Musk makes new admission about working in politics
Musk made an admission about his conduct in politics. “I think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly,” he told The Economist. He provided no details on which actions he might reconsider. Donald Trump had tapped Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an entity created by executive order on the president’s first day.
Musk defended DOGE’s record in the interview. “We need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities. And I got a lot of flack for this, obviously,” he stated.
Musk, who had poured millions into Trump’s campaign, accepted the role of unelected director and immediately launched a sweeping order on federal spending and personnel. His team forced out more than 272,000 federal employees through firings and a deferred resignation program that nearly 140,000 workers accepted.
DOGE staffers also terminated millions of dollars in grant funding for health research, arts initiatives, and other programmes. They made these decisions largely based on their own assessments of projects they deemed linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
The Social Security Administration and other essential services also faced cuts before DOGE shut down on July 4 after an 18-month run controversial for its chaos and a flood of lawsuits alleging unconstitutional overreach.
The interviewer pressed him on USAID, the decades-old global aid organisation he once vowed to feed through a “wood chipper.” Musk asserted that “zero” people died because DOGE dismantled USAID programmes. Public health researchers reportedly contradict this claim (via The Independent).
Musk dismissed the criticism. “These claims are false. They’re nonsense, absolute nonsense,” he said.
