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Elon Musk left the White House DOGE office in May.
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The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he hasn’t been to Washington since then.
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“That was a hell of a side quest,” Musk said of his time in government.
Elon Musk said he has not visited Washington, D.C., since stepping down from his role at the White House DOGE office.
“I haven’t been to D.C. since May. That was a hell of a side quest,” Musk said during an interview at the All-In Summit.
The All-In Summit, which featured other business leaders such as Mark Cuban, took place in Los Angeles from September 7 to September 9. A recording of Musk’s interview was uploaded to the “All-In Podcast” YouTube channel on Tuesday.
“The government is basically unfixable,” Musk said when asked about the lessons he learnt from running DOGE.
“If you look at our national debt, which is insanely high, the interest payments exceed the War Department budget,” Musk added. “So, if AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we are toast.”
Musk and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Musk was a huge backer of President Donald Trump during the latter’s 2024 election campaign. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO spent at least $277 million supporting Trump and other GOP candidates.
After Trump was elected, Musk joined the Trump administration as a special government employee, leading DOGE. Musk continued to run his businesses while working in government. His 130-day stint as a special government employee ended in May.
In January, Musk was optimistic about what he could accomplish with DOGE. He told political strategist Mark Penn during a livestream on X that DOGE had a “good shot” at saving $1 trillion.
The government is “a very target-rich environment for saving money,” Musk told Penn.
“It’s like being in a room full of targets. Like, you could close your eyes, and you can’t miss,” he said.
It is unclear just how much money DOGE saved for the federal government. In April, Musk said the cost cutting outfit was on track to cut nearly $150 billion in spending for the 2026 fiscal year.
In June, Musk’s relationship with the president imploded publicly after they posted heated messages to each other on X and Truth Social, respectively.
Musk took aim at Trump’s signature tax bill, calling it a “MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK.” He also took credit for Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.
“Such ingratitude,” Musk wrote in an X post on June 5.
Trump had earlier threatened to cancel the government’s contracts with Musk’s businesses, but has since taken a more conciliatory tone with Musk.
Last week, Trump said during an interview on “The Scott Jennings Show” that Musk was a “good man.”
“He’s got 80% super genius, and then 20% he’s got some problems. And when he works out the 20%, he’ll be great,” Trump said of Musk.
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