Elon Musk, in first DOGE team interview: "This is a revolution"
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Elon Musk watches President Trump address a Cabinet meeting at the White House. Photo: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Elon Musk described the Department of Government Efficiency's work as a "revolution" in his team's first interview on the department's behalf Thursday.
Why it matters: DOGE has forced out tens of thousands of employees, shuttered agencies, canceled grants and contracts and upended how the U.S. does business — changes the public tells pollsters they don't generally like.
What they're saying: "This is a revolution, and I think it might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution," Musk, flanked by seven DOGE colleagues, told Fox News.
- Musk suggested the balance of that work could be done soon.
Zoom in: He holds "special government employee" status, which means he can work on government business for 130 days in every 365-day period. Fox host Bret Baier asked Musk if he had any plans to stay on past that 130-day window.
- "I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that timeframe," he said.
- He later added that he'd like to be moving even quicker: "What seems like incredibly fast action by government standards is — it's slower than I'd like, to be totally frank."
The intrigue: Until now, DOGE has mostly been a shadowy operation — neither Musk nor the administration confirming precisely who works there or exactly how many employees it has.
- The DOGE staff who joined him Monday included engineers, bankers and corporate executives who've all been deployed to overhaul various government agencies.
- Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder now working on streamlining the retirement process for government employees, said: "We really believe that the government can have an Apple Store-like experience."
Flashback: Musk stirred controversy with his last TV appearance earlier this month, when he told Fox that in his crusade to cut government spending and root out fraud, entitlements were the "big one" to target.
- DOGE subsequently pushed for deep service cuts at Social Security, which were partially rolled back this week. The White House has promised people will keep receiving their benefits.
- Musk and colleagues insisted Thursday that Social Security is plagued by fraud, claiming that 40% of calls to phone centers in some cases were fraudulent and that 15 million "living" people age 120+ were on the agency's rolls.
- Social Security's acting commissioner has repeatedly downplayed those fraud allegations and said the actual tally was on the order of $100 million a year, a small fraction of 1% of what the agency pays out.
By the numbers: Anger over Musk-driven cuts has spilled over to his business interests, particularly Tesla, whose shares have lost a third of their value this year.
- Sales are falling sharply across the globe, and the government is pursuing domestic terrorism charges over Molotov cocktail attacks allegedly inspired by the #TeslaTakedown movement.
