Elon Musk’s DOGE lights out
DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, promised significant savings. It was disbanded with eight months remaining on its founding charter.
Elon Musk said he became “obsessed” and “got a little too involved in politics” during his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But he said he supports the department’s efforts.
He made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with The Economist’s Insider, hosted by Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Here’s what you need to know about Musk’s reflections on his short-lived political career.
Musk says he’s ‘obsessed’ with DOGE’s efforts
In an interview published on July 23, Musk told Beddoes that in hindsight, his role in President Donald Trump’s White House may have gone too far.
“I think I got a little too involved in politics,” Musk said. “Frankly, I was hooked.”
But he disagreed that the work of DOGE, an ad hoc division tasked with eliminating wasteful spending and fraud, had any negative impact.
DOGE was created in the early months of President Trump’s second term. At the time, Musk said the agency would reduce the national deficit by more than $2 trillion within a year. As it approaches its first anniversary, DOGE’s own calculations show savings of $214 billion. This was less than a quarter of the most modest promise.
Much of that funding ($28.3 billion) came from cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a federal program that provides life-saving medicines and aid to developing countries.
Mr. Musk denied that these cuts led to “unnecessary suffering,” as Mr. Beddoes said, and called reports of child deaths due to the dismantling of programs that received funding from USAID “nonsense.”
“So, to put it really wildly and simply, no one can accept the idea that children in Africa died from sudden events…” Beddoes said before being interrupted by Musk.
“Zero,” the tech billionaire replied.
Beddoes continued to go after Musk, saying, “There’s a huge amount of health-related closures in Africa.” Musk responded that there were “claims” that the program had been shut down, but that they were “false” and “nonsense.”
Impact Counter, a statistical tracking tool developed by infectious disease mathematical modeler and health economist Dr. Brooke Nichols, recorded more than 780,000 deaths, including more than 518,000 children, within a year of USAID program cuts.
Musk claimed that the organizations whose funding had been cut were fraudulently run, and reiterated that “zero people have died because of DOGE.”
Musk: “Trump administration is doing great things”
Musk donated more than $250 million to Trump’s re-election campaign and was frequently seen alongside the president after he took back the Oval Office, but the two sides had a brief but contentious feud after Musk left office.
Asked if he still supported the administration, Musk said, “I’m not going to agree with everything that any administration does,” but that “overall,” Trump’s team has done a “great” job.
“No government is perfect, but we are far better than any alternative,” Musk added.
Drew Pittock covers trending news from around the country for USA TODAY. He can be reached at DPittock@usatodayco.com.
