Elon Musk is tempering expectations for his cost-cutting DOGE initiative, acknowledging it hasn’t lived up to his $2 trillion ambition.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve been effective. Not as effective as I’d like. I think we could be more effective. But we’ve made progress,” Musk told reporters during a Q&A session in the White House on Wednesday.
Several outlets reported the comments, including the Associated Press, USA Today, and Axios.
He said that so far, DOGE — short for the Department of Government Efficiency — has cut $160 billion in federal spending and eliminated 20,000 government jobs, or about 1% of the federal workforce.
But Musk said resistance from within the administration, public backlash, and protests, including vandalism against his EV company Tesla, have made the initiatives difficult to execute.
“Being attacked is not super fun,” Musk said. “Seeing cars on fire is not fun.”
While DOGE was initially planned to end in 2026, Musk told reporters it may run through the end of Trump’s term in 2028.
“I think so,” Musk said of a potential extension. “It’s up to the president.”
Musk, who has faced criticism for splitting his time between Washington and his companies, told Tesla investors last week he plans to scale back his time at the White House to one or two days a week after his EV maker’s earnings per share plunged 71% year over year in the first quarter of 2025.
Yet, Musk maintained he believes DOGE’s long-term savings potential could still hit $1 trillion.
“It can be done,” he said. “But it requires dealing with a lot of complaints.”
“DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism,” he said. “Buddha isn’t alive anymore. You wouldn’t ask the question: ‘Who would lead Buddhism?”
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