Elon Musk said he got “carried away” and a “little too involved in politics” during his time leading the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
But he says he stands by the department’s work.
He made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with The Economist’s “Insider,” hosted by Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Here’s what you should know about Musk’s reflections on his short-lived political career.
Musk says he ‘got carried away,’ stands by DOGE’s work
Musk told Beddoes during an interview published July 23 that in retrospect, 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.
“Got carried away, frankly.”
However, he refused to agree that the work of DOGE, a temporary department tasked with eliminating wasteful spending and fraud, had any negative consequences.
DOGE was initially created in the early months of Trump’s second term.
At the time, Musk said the agency would cut upwards of $2 trillion from the national deficit within one year.
As its first anniversary neared, DOGE’s own calculations tabulated savings of $214 billion − less than a quarter of its most conservative promises.
Much of that money – $28.3 billion – came from cuts to the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, a federal program that provides life-saving medicines and assistance to developing countries.
Musk denied that those cuts led to “unnecessary suffering,” as Beddoes described it, calling reports of child deaths due to dismantled programs that got their funding from USAID “nonsense.”
“So you don’t buy the idea that anybody –– to put it really crudely and simply, any kid in Africa died because of the suddenness with which .
.
.”, Beddoes said before being interrupted by Musk.
“Zero,” the tech billionaire responded.
Beddoes continued to push Musk, saying there were “huge numbers of things shut down in Africa that were health related.” Musk responded that there were “claims” of programs being shut down, but that they were “false” and “nonsense.”
Impact Counter, a statistical tracker developed by Dr. Brooke Nichols, an infectious disease mathematical modeler and health economist, documented more than 780,000 deaths within the first year of cuts to USAID programs, including more than 518,000 children.
Musk maintained that the organizations that had their funding cut were operating fraudulently, before reiterating that “zero people died because of DOGE.”
Musk: Trump administration is doing ‘excellent’
Although Musk donated more than $250 million to Trump’s reelection campaign and was often seen at the president’s side after he retook the Oval Office, the two had a brief but contentious falling out following Musk’s departure from government.
Asked whether he still supports the administration, Musk said he’s “not going to agree with everything any administration does,” but that “on balance,” Trump’s team is doing “excellent.”
“No administration is perfect,” Musk added, “but it’s vastly better than the alternative.”
Drew Pittock covers national trending news for USA TODAY.
He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk says he ‘got carried away’ in politics, defends DOGE
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 14, 2026. © Evan Vucci, REUTERS
