Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the US President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was only “a little bit successful.” He made the comment on The Katie Miller Podcast, released on Tuesday.
"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," Musk said.
Musk also said that he would not lead the project again. After Trump secured a second term in the November 2024 elections, it was soon announced that his prominent donor, Musk, would lead DOGE. The team tried to cut the federal government's budget and reduce its workforce in the first five months of the term. At the time, both Musk and Trump made repeated claims that DOGE had saved billions of dollars for the US government.
"I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically worked on my companies. And they wouldn't have been burning the cars," Musk said on the podcast with former Trump administration official Katie Miller. His remarks referred to the political backlash that he faced as DOGE head, which resulted in protests against Tesla.
The @elonmusk episode:
December 9, 2025
0:00 — Introduction
1:13 — How DOGE Began
2:22 — Has DOGE Been Successful?
3:51 — Would Elon Do DOGE Again?
5:40 — Importing Illegal Immigrants
7:00 — Thoughts on Ilhan Omar
7:56 — AI and Robots Replacing Jobs
9:59 — Elon's Biggest Irrational Fear
10:17 —… pic.twitter.com/AaXsKQ5On0Asked if he would go back and lead DOGE again, Musk said: "No, I don't think so."
Notably, Musk had made an abrupt departure as the DOGE head in May 2025. He resigned from the post after confrontations with Trump over the President's marquee tax bill. He had said that it was too expensive and a measure that would undermine his work to make the government more “efficient”.
Musk's involvement with DOGE had also led to investor concerns that he was not paying enough attention towards Tesla.
The fallout between Trump and Musk became public after Musk made several remarks criticising the US government. However, there have been signs of reconciliation between the duo recently.
Notably, while Musk is not eager to return to DOGE, the US government has clarified that the team is already disbanded, with eight months left to its mandate.
"That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE's status.
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