Now that Elon Musk is getting into the nitty-gritty of how government is funded, it seems his promises to cut the federal budget have to be pared back.
The richest man on earth proposed a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the run-up to the presidential election in November, and has since b een instated as one of the project’s co-leads.
Musk initially pledged to cut some $2 trillion from the federal budget, alongside his DOGE partner, politician Vivek Ramaswamy .
But now the Tesla boss suggests the savings may not be as deep as he had previously hoped for.
“We’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s like the best-case outcome,” Musk told Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of marketing business Stagwell , in a live interview on X .
“I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one.
“In terms of saving money in the government, well, as you know, it’s a very target-rich environment for saving money. It was like, ‘Where will you find places to save money?’ I’m like, ‘It’s like being in a room full of targets,’” Musk, a key Trump ally, continued.
How will Musk’s DOGE aim to save money?
Among Musk’s top to-do list items is getting federal staff back in the office. Office utilization aside, the X owner has outright said that a return-to-office mandate will help cut headcount.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal alongside Ramaswamy in November, the billionaire outlined: “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the COVID-era privilege of staying home.”
Other savings will come through audits of procurement processes, the pair added in the op-ed, as well as scrutiny of expenditures and where they are being allocated.
“You could close your eyes, and you can’t miss,” Musk added in the interview with Penn this week.
The man worth $426 billion , per Bloomberg , continued to outline the many ways in which the current federal authorities misuse funds, though he didn’t expand on why the apparent raft of opportunities for efficiency translates into a lower-than-expected cut to the budget deficit.
“There’s just a lot of waste in government, especially [in] the federal government you’ve just got a situation where the checks never bounce, like they’ve got the infinite money computer,” Musk said.
“The people that spend the money … it’s not their money. It’s very hard for people to care about spending someone else’s money. Actually, I know people in the government who do care about—just as a matter of principle—and they try to do so, and they can’t, the system prevents them from doing so,” the SpaceX founder continued.
In a familiar situation for many business leaders, Musk alleges staff are told to spend all of their budgets toward the end of the cycle to avoid having their funds cut in future allocation rounds.
“It’s actually sort of a perverse incentive to waste money,” he added.
Potential for a ‘golden age’
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Musk is feeling good about economic prospects under another Trump administration.
The billionaire has seen his personal wealth swell, courtesy of the incoming president-elect. According to Bloomberg, before Trump’s return to the Oval Office, Musk was worth $264 billion.
Since then, that figure has soared to an eye-watering $426 billion—an increase of more than 60%.
His fortunes have been boosted by Trump’s reimagined outlook on EVs—which Musk, of course, has a vested interest in as Tesla’s CEO —and a wider market rally.
Some of this has been prompted by Wall Street’s anticipation of a regulation-lite approach under Trump, with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon saying bankers are “dancing in the street.”
Musk is similarly looking forward to a more hands-off approach from the White House, adding in the interview Wednesday: “I’m actually pretty optimistic about the next four or five years. I think we have the potential for a golden age.
“It’s very important to get rid of the mountain of regulations that are holding things back … There are good regulations, but there’s just so much that we can’t get anything done.”
Musk isn’t the only Republican feeling sunny about the economy.
A December Gallup survey of more than 2,000 voters revealed that 88% of Republicans expect the stock market to rise in 2025, and 87% expect inflation to continue at a reasonable rate.
A further 78% predict general economic prosperity, compared with 40% of independent voters and 15% of Democrats.
