Elon Musk says DOGE has become the ‘whipping boy’ for everything, ‘even if we had nothing to do with it’

Speaking from his SpaceX facility in Texas, Musk participated in an interview where he commented about his step back from politics to focus more intently on his companies. The interview came ahead of Musk's departure from DOGE, as his time in the administration as a special government employee has come to an end.

“I’m physically here. This is the focus, and especially around launch. Everything comes together at the moment of launch,” Musk said, according to The Washington Post.

Despite shifting focus back onto his companies, Musk said that DOGE’s mission to cut waste and inefficiency in the federal government remains active, but the agency will shift toward less controversial priorities like improving outdated computer systems.

“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he said. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.”

He went on to explain how DOGE’s cost-cutting efforts had triggered political backlash and misdirected blame.

“DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,” he said. “So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Because of this, DOGE will now prioritize projects that deliver high impact with fewer political consequences. “A bit more like tackling projects with the highest gain for the pain,” Musk explained. “Which still means a lot of good things in terms of reducing waste and fraud.”

In a separate interview with CBS News, Musk criticized the “big beautiful bill” passed by the House, saying it undermines DOGE’s goals of reducing government spending.

"I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk said.