Elon Musk on "Somewhat Successful" DOGE: "If You Stop Money Going To Political Corruption, They Will Lash Out Big Time"

RealClear Politics ^ | 10 Dec, 2025 | Ian Schwartz

[MtnClimber]

In an interview on "The Katie Miller Pod," Elon Musk said DOGE, the Department of Governmental Efficiency, was a "somewhat successful" venture, but he wouldn't do it again.

KATIE MILLER: You are in the Roosevelt Room, if you remember this, getting sworn in, and they hand you a computer and a phone. I want to go back to what happened next. I think the story of DOGE, from your perspective, has never been told. What was your first thought on how DOGE was going to proceed?

ELON MUSK: Well, I guess I couldn't believe I was there, for the most part. It's like, it all seemed extremely surreal at the time. You know, Doge was a made-up name that had been made up, I don't know, two or three months before.

And based on internet suggestions. And I was going to call it the Government Efficiency Commission. And then someone on the internet said, no, it should be the Department of Government Efficiency, DOG. I'm like, that sounds great. So we just kind of made up a department.

MILLER: Do you think you were successful?

MUSK: We're a little bit successful. We were somewhat successful. I mean, we stopped a lot of funding for -- that really just made no sense. That was just entirely wasteful. Where, like, for example, there was like, probably 100, maybe 200 billion dollars worth of zombie payments per year.

Which simply by enforcing that there be a payment code and an explanation for the payment, that the payment would not go out. So we've made that change to the main treasury computer and a bunch of other computers. It's like, it seems like insanely obvious.

---

TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: budget; doge; fakenews; leftism; stillspending

[brownsfan]

“Please seek Help”

Prove me wrong.

[dforest]

Instead that Pieces OS Congress is shuttling more money off to the criminals in Ukraine.

We can’t fix this country doing things like this.

Congress is not for the American people.

[gloryblaze]

Talk about a thankless endeavor. I would be thoroughly embittered. In fact, his closing statement is grim:

So, I don't know, we're just going to turn into a, you know, communist hellhole, basically.

[Delta 21]

I figured that the smartest guy in the Universe would have realized that.

[Fiji Hill]

The DOGE Dance

USAID, Department of Ed, did you hear what Elon said?
Members of the Pentagon, your reckless spending days are gone.
FAA, NIH, time to end your overreach.
Treasury, CFPB, Elizabeth Warren weeps for thee.
You’re out of style. Out of loot. Donald Trump don’t give a hoot.
Robert, Pam, Peter, too,
Little Marco, we love you.
Patriots with an attitude,
Voters who are in the mood.
Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it.
Time for DOGE, there’s nothing to it.

[SMARTY]

Probably the basis of most anti Trump rancor

[woodbutcher1963]

We have not passed an annual Federal budget since 1997.

They just keep spending and passing CRs.

So, what is to stop them?

[Cold Heart]

Read last paragraph of the excerpt.

[Savage Beast]

In 2016, when President-elect Trump announced, "The party's over; I'm going to clean up Washington," the Corrupt Establishment saw this as a declaration of war against it.

Its lash-out was definitely big-time, including three assassination attempts that we know of.

Musk is right. If you attack corruption and corrupt politicians, they will lash out big time!

We've seen it in action!

[1Old Pro]

So, what is to stop them?

Only themselves, and they have failed us miserably.

[nwrep]

Thanks. I read that. But I want numbers.

[MikelTackNailer]

Well done! Now “The DOGE Dance” needs a video for it.

[Fiji Hill]

Here's the original DOGE video.

[SunkenCiv]

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[GOPJ]

Where, like, for example, there was like, probably 100, maybe 200 billion dollars worth of zombie payments per year. Which simply by enforcing that there be a payment code and an explanation for the payment, that the payment would not go out. So we've made that change to the main treasury computer and a bunch of other computers. It's like, it seems like insanely obvious.

The zombie payments could have gone on for decades... thanks Elon for stopping that disaster and so many others...

[MinorityRepublican]

Still no accounting of how much they actually saved us. May be a drop in the bucket. But 99% of the corruption still continues.

We haven't even touched Defense.

Especially the "Black Budget".