Musk admits he would do it differently regarding DOGE

When Elon Musk got caught up in the madness of the 2024 election, you could see him becoming addicted to the political machine. He was already a household name, but politics is a completely different animal.

He got a taste of it, and he apparently did not like it, because now he says if he had to do it all again, he never would have joined DOGE.

The $2 trillion promise

When it became clear that Musk was going to join Trump’s administration, he started talking big like a politician without really knowing all the facts.

Musk started spouting off about being able to trim $2 trillion, but he changed his tune rather quickly.

The $2 trillion then became a “best-case outcome,” then he tempered expectations to about $1 trillion.

All the while, I said I didn’t think he would be able to cut more than $500 billion, and I was setting that as my “best” case.

Disappointed

The Musk DOGE experiment was a complete hot mess because Musk did not realize how the political machine works (he should have called me).

You cannot cut spending that has already been approved by Congress without another act of Congress. Point being, a lot of the money Musk wanted to spend was being blocked in court because it was illegal to cut it out.

Musk then assumed that his cuts would be included in the big, beautiful bill, but they were not, which was also “disappointing” to Musk.

He commented at the time, "I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both. My personal opinion."

Never again

Musk paid a high price for joining DOGE, both professionally and personally. Tesla came under attack, his personal life was raked over the coals, and then there was the fallout with Trump.

When asked if he would do it again, Musk responded, "I mean the thing is, like, I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built, you know, worked on my companies essentially," he said. "So and not and the cars would they wouldn't have been burning the cars."

DOGE was always a political stunt, and anyone saying anything else is simply a liar. Musk admits they may have found about $200 billion in cuts, and more than that was probably spent on all the legal cases, hiring and firing, etc., that took place during this little experiment.

Musk now realizes it was a failure and that the government is set up to spend, not save. I loved the concept of DOGE, but I also know how our government works. He was used, plain and simple, so no, I don’t blame him for saying he would not do it again.