Elon Musk used a recent sit-down with his aide and conservative media personality Katie Miller to reflect on his turbulent stretch running the Department of Government Efficiency. He concluded that the entire project delivered only modest gains and was not something he would choose to repeat.
In the interview, recorded for the “Katie Miller Podcast,” Musk defended President Donald Trump’s short-lived agency even as he conceded its limits. The Tesla and SpaceX boss, who also owns the social platform X, argued that DOGE produced useful findings but struggled under the weight of an unwieldy federal bureaucracy. He also admitted that his time in Washington dragged down his own companies and drew public frustration.
“We were a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful,” Musk told Miller, who previously served as a DOGE spokeswoman responsible for promoting the agency’s output.
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When she asked whether he would take on the role again, Musk replied, “I don’t think so. … Instead of doing DOGE, I would have, basically, built … worked on my companies.” He later remarked, almost with a sense of regret, “They wouldn’t have been burning the cars,” a nod to Tesla owners who staged fiery protests during the height of DOGE’s unpopularity.
The conversation, which stretched beyond fifty minutes, ranged across topics including Musk’s views on AI, the culture inside his companies, conspiracy theories and fashion. Miller, who is married to senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller and joined Musk’s private-sector team after leaving government, kept the discussion light and avoided questions about DOGE’s aggressive takeover of federal operations and data systems.
Elon Musk used the episode to defend DOGE’s headline estimates, saying the initiative identified as much as $200 billion a year in avoidable “zombie payments” through improved automation and better coding of federal disbursements. Those figures, however, fall far short of his earlier predictions that a full efficiency drive could reach savings in the trillions. Miller, according to the Associated Press, has not responded when contacted for comment.
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Since parting ways with the Trump administration in the spring and before the agency’s formal closure last month, Musk’s fortunes have only grown. Tesla shareholders recently endorsed a compensation plan that positions him to become the first trillionaire in history.
