Elon Musk makes bold claim about government's former DOGE program: 'They wouldn't have been burning the cars'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is known in part for saying controversial or "careless" things, but as the Guardian reported, he recently made a sincerely shocking admission.

On Dec. 9, Musk appeared on a podcast hosted by Katie Miller, the wife of deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller. During that appearance, the Tesla CEO made a highly unusual set of statements, describing the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was previously run by him, as only "a little bit successful." Miller asked Musk if he would do it all again, and he said he wouldn't.

"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, referencing Tesla vandalism.

In 2025, Musk's involvement in American politics moved beyond funding and into an active government role.

Musk first floated the idea of a "government efficiency" division in August 2024, and on Jan. 20, the concept formally became the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

What followed was, by all accounts, an immediate frenzy of government cuts. Staffed by individuals as young as 19, none older than 25, DOGE was likened to a "wrecking ball."

Within a week, more than two million federal civil servants received an email pressuring them to resign from their positions and transition "to higher productivity jobs in the private sector."

Musk repeatedly pledged to cut $1 trillion worth of what he insisted was "waste, fraud, and abuse" in Washington, despite scant evidence of the purported problem. One of DOGE's first high-profile actions was to decommission USAID, a humanitarian aid agency.

DOGE "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead," Musk posted to X on Feb. 3. 

Backlash was swift as food aid was incinerated rather than distributed, and in the spring, Microsoft founder Bill Gates characterized DOGE's targeting of USAID as "the world's richest man killing the world's poorest children."

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Vital funds appropriated by Congress were frozen, in-progress projects were canceled, and DOGE's activity at the Social Security Administration affected disbursements and potentially compromised Americans' data.

As scenes of chaos unfolded, Musk emphasized his public-facing role, even as critical agencies like the National Weather Service had their funding slashed. Backlash was swift and not limited to the United States.

Musk's role as CEO of Tesla was equally prominent, and the electric vehicle manufacturer's dealerships were protested, with cars and charging stations vandalized. 

Sales slumped immediately in the U.S. and Europe, and a subsequent NBER study quantified the enormous economic impact Musk's actions inflicted on the Tesla brand.

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