Elon Musk admits he got ‘carried away' running DOGE for Trump

Allison Bloom Fri, July 24, 2026 at 4:36 PM UTC

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U.S. President Trump Meets With China's President Xi And Attends State Banquet (Image: Getty)

The richest man in the world has revealed that he was in over his head while running DOGE.

"I think I got a little too involved with politics," Musk told the Economist, speaking about his brief stint running the Department of Government Efficiency.

Following Trump's victory, it was announced that the billionaire Tesla CEO would lead a new cost-reduction initiative called DOGE. "The goal with the sort of DOGE stuff was to try to do something about the deficit, which is massive," Musk explained in the interview.

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"I got carried away, frankly," Musk admitted, while speaking about his relationship with Trump. He helped Trump get re-elected in 2024 with $200 million in financial backing.

In his role as DOGE leader, Musk oversaw $150 billion in budget cuts that resulted in tens of thousands of people losing their federal jobs.

Trump appointed Musk the head of DOGE after he was elected (Image: Getty)

During his brief four-month tenure in the Trump administration, the controversial nature of Musk's work at DOGE impacted his companies, causing Tesla's stock to drop sharply.

Soon after departing the White House, he became locked in a public feud with the president over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a major spending bill championed by Trump.

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Although the tech mogul threatened to form a third political party, the venture failed to gain traction. He and Trump have since mended their relationship, as Musk attended a White House dinner last November and accompanied the president on a trip to China with fellow tech leaders in May.

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Trump and Musk's relationship ended in a brutal public fallout (Image: Getty)

He spoke on Katie Miller's podcast in December. He explained that if he were given the opportunity to do it all again, he probably wouldn't.

"I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically worked on my companies," Musk said at the time.

Musk spoke to The Economist about his plans to power his AI venture with space-based data centers, a concept that experts have warned could prove "catastrophic" for Earth.

He also predicted that AI systems could exceed the collective intelligence of humanity within five years, while workplace robots will help bring about a period of "amazing abundance" within a decade, rendering money meaningless.

Nevertheless, the most contentious aspects of the interview involved his political projections. He claimed that the UK will descend into a civil war within 20 years, reflecting a recent obsession with the country's race and immigration politics, despite not having visited it for years.

In an analysis piece accompanying the interview, The Economist acknowledged Musk's polarizing nature, writing that his political viewpoints shared with 240 million X followers seem straightforward to some but appear explicitly bigoted to many others, including the outlet itself.

According to The Economist, Musk suggested that the universe might be a computer simulation created by aliens. "The things I'm doing are so preposterous that it's hard to believe they're real," he said.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”