Elon Musk admits he “got carried away” working inside Donald Trump’s administration as the unelected director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where he implemented mass firings and radically cut federal spending.
“I think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly,” he told The Economist in a wide-ranging interview published Thursday, but offered few specifics on what he regretted.
But the world’s wealthiest man — who pumped millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign before he was deputized to oversee the president’s brutal cost-cutting operation — defended the work of DOGE and his dismantling of the nation’s global aid agency that he once promised to put through a “wood chipper.”
“We need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities. And I got a lot of flack for this, obviously,” he said.
I wonder if he can just see the writing on the wall, or if he was actually using a cannon to kill a fly? Maybe its that SpaceX isn’t doing so hot? Maybe its the investigation related to tRump going on about how Musk “really knows those voting machines” and how they’ll “never have to vote again”.
Either way, people are dead because of him. We won’t forget, and there will be an accounting for this.
I was a government contractor for four years. I made really good money, worked from home, and had really good benefits. A year ago, Elon and Trump decided to stop paying the contract I was on. Between outsourcing and AI, I couldn’t find anyone to hire me. I had to work in a grocery store for six months with ten years of web development and project management experience. I start my job as a mailman on Monday. I’ll never forgive them and forsake anyone associated with them. Until the seas dry and the land breaks, I wish suffering and damnation upon them.
it’s infuriating seeing the two assholes cutting everything for literal pennies, then wasting trillions on a useless war that has only economic downsides, just because bibi asked it nicely
Don’t forget the tax breaks for the Uber rich.
I’m so, so sorry you’re in this position. It isn’t right.
I’ve been in, or worked for the military for 26 years last month so I’ve seen some political things. While DOGE didn’t kill my little 150 person org it wiped out a third of our experienced folks and eliminated all young folks we feed to the larger workforce.
The large over arching programs like USAID will be fairly easily put back together but the folks not in the DMV will be hard to luer back.
My command is fairly senior but two years ago I at 49 years old was about average, now I’m in the younger cohort, that’s not good for any workforce.
How many kids have you killed or helped kill in your 26 years? Or did you perhaps refuel vehicles that lead to killing kids, fed some child killers to give them the strength to get through a day of child killing, or defended somewhere at home so killers could be deployed overseas to kill kids?
Gonna be in the same place as soon as my daughter goes to public school. I really can’t justify paying at a minimum $3000 for child care in my area AND not see my kid. My wife has a solid job in another industry that won’t be touched by AI. Thankful for her.
Grats on the mailman job. Sincerely, I couldn’t find a new job in software but it was also melting my mind being told I need to use AI all day long. I will happy to make less and do something else once the $36000 a year in childcare is not required. I have that privilege to wait after a decade in software thankfully.