Elon Musk says he wouldn't do DOGE again

Elon Musk has said he would not go back to lead President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) again while admitting that it was only “somewhat successful.”

The billionaire founder of Tesla was a close ally to Trump during the election campaign and went on to spearhead the cost-cutting body until a public falling out with the president in June. 

Over the first five months of Trump’s term, the department sparked mass layoffs at government agencies and publicly funded organizations. It also took part in an immigration crackdown and copied sensitive data from government databases.

Musk’s role as the head of DOGE caused significant public backlash, which included people burning Tesla cars. One study said Musk’s political actions were still hitting Tesla sales as late as the fall, while it also led to investor concerns that he was not spending enough time on the car company as its business flagged.

“Instead of doing DOGE I would have basically worked on my companies. And they wouldn't have been burning the cars,” Musk said on a podcast with Katie Miller, a former Trump official.

“We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful. We stopped a lot of funding that really just made no sense, that was entirely wasteful,” he said. Asked if he would go back to lead the organization again, he said: “No, I don't think so.”

The billionaire’s comments hint at a growing narrative in U.S. politics that, for all the noise it created, DOGE ultimately had little positive effect on the government — something Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also pointed to in September.

At the time, Lutnick told Axios: “I thought Elon got caught up in other people's objectives” by prioritizing cutting jobs rather than wasteful spending. “The government, I'm sure it could be 10% smaller. I'm sure it could be 15% smaller. And let the cabinet secretaries go in, study their place and make the proper cuts.”

“The focus should have been on cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and the people you could do over time,” Lutnick added. “I thought he got that backward.”

DOGE claims around $214 billion in savings, but experts have disputed the figures and say they are overstated and riddled with inaccuracies, such as double-counting. There's still no clear image on the scale of the spending cuts.

In November, it emerged that the department effectively disbanded with eight months left on its mandate. “That doesn't exist,” Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters in November when asked about DOGE's status, adding that is no longer a “centralized entity.”

—Joseph Zeballos-Roig contributed to this article.