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May 1, 2025
‘It Is Really Difficult’: Elon Musk Reflects On Successes, Challenges Of DOGEs: “There Are Definitely Fraud Rings Operating, But In Order To Break Up A Fraud Ring, It’s Kind Of Like The Mafia"
THE WHITE HOUSE – On day 101 of the second Trump administration, Elon Musk recognized that his mission to cleanse the federal government of “waste, fraud and abuse” hasn’t been easy.
But Musk believes he and his team have had success — and the team will continue on its mission, according to Musk, well beyond 100 days.
“DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism,” Musk laughed while meeting with reporters on Wednesday.
Elon Musk sat in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing with the Daily Caller and a handful of other print reporters on Wednesday evening to reflect back on what DOGE has been able to accomplish as the Trump administration celebrated its first 100 days in office. As of Wednesday, DOGE says it has saved the American taxpayer $160 billion, which is equivalent to about $1,000 per taxpayer.
470,000 of the 4.6 million active U.S. government credit cards and accounts have been cancelled, a six page fact sheet on “DOGE wins” provided to the Caller read. The Social Security Administration has cleaned up its records at the directive of DOGE, finding 11 million number holders (all listed to be 120 years old or older) to be dead, the fact sheet claims.
“There [was] also an intense period in the beginning to try to figure out what’s going on, so just to get the lay of the land, things have to be very intense for the first three months,” Musk said.
“Just literally trying to understand what’s going on and try to map out, map out an understanding of the government in general. So, because the federal government is gigantic, very complicated and so if you’re trying to figure out how to stop racing forward, you’ve got to map the territory, understand how money’s been spent and why and where,” he continued.
Musk has said he will be stepping back from his full-time role at DOGE (he has been working in D.C. since the start of the administration about seven days a week) because the program has gotten into a rhythm and doesn’t need as much attention as some of his businesses do.
But Musk won’t completely disappear from DOGE, telling reporters that he will continue to work in D.C. on the project about two days each week.
In fact, Musk told the Caller that he thinks DOGE could be around for all four years of the second Trump administration — dependent on how long Trump wants his services. But for now, they’re still needed.
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Musk and his team provided some examples of fraud they are currently working on eliminating from the federal government, which is escalating to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her team at the Department of Justice.
“There are hundreds of thousands of cases of fraud in the federal government,” Musk told reporters.
“We try to find the cases that are the most clear cut, we send that evidence to the DOJ, where they run it through their process, which takes several weeks,” Musk said, explaining that from there the DOJ has to decide whether it has the resources to pursue the case, if worthwhile.
It is a start, but DOGE is going deeper, Musk told reporters, explaining that he believes there are fraud rings being run in the federal government.
“There are definitely fraud rings operating, but in order to break up a fraud ring, it’s kind of like the mafia. You have to basically arrest one of the mafia foot soldiers, hopeful that they do a plea deal, then they tell you who their fraud manager is, and you can kind of work your way up the chain,” Musk explained.
The Federal Reserve is another potential place of interest for DOGE to inspect, as Musk seemed baffled by the report that the department is planning on spending $2.5 billion to revamp its headquarters.
“I think since at the end of the day, this is all taxpayer money, I think we would certainly look to see if indeed the Federal Reserve is spending two and a half billion dollars on their design. But that’s an eyebrow raiser,” Musk said.
At the beginning of DOGE, Musk set a goal of saving the American people $2 trillion. Despite outside doubt, Musk still believes.
“I think it’s possible to do that, but there’s a long road to go,” Musk said.
“It’s really difficult … It’s sort of, how much pain does the cabinet and Congress want to take because it can be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints,” he continued.
Musk is no stranger to complaints. Though joyful and laughing for a majority of the meeting, it was clear his task has brought some rocky waters to Musk. Just a few weeks ago, protestors lit Tesla chargers on fire across the country, vandalized Tesla cars and threw Molotov cocktails at a Tesla dealership.
“I’m proud of the incredible work by those teams who’ve taken a lot of flack. And these are people that can easily get high paying jobs in the private sector. In fact, came from high paying jobs in the private sector,” he said.
In February, Musk admitted that he and his team would make mistakes and that they would aim to correct them. Cutting USAID was one of the moves DOGE made in the last few months that received the most pushback, some of which caused the team to make mistakes, Musk previously told Fox News.
“I think there’s maybe another tendency to focus on the regrets … it’s sort of like focusing on balls missed, versus balls hit,” Musk told the Caller about how DOGE would avoid mistakes in the future. “Nobody bats 1.000 but nobody even bats .800.”
“I think we’re probably getting things right 70/80% of the time, something like that, which would be a ridiculous number for baseball, and so the wins far exceed the losses,” Musk said.
Musk’s time in the administration has brought about once-in-a-lifetime experiences too. The richest man in the world gave a window into what it has been like to be friends with President Donald Trump and run DOGE.
“We’ll be on Air Force One or Marine One and [Trump] will be like, ‘Hey, do you want to stay over?’ I’m like, ‘sure.’ But I didn’t request it, to be clear,” Musk said, sharing with reporters that sometimes when he is in D.C. he stays at the White House in the Lincoln Bedroom. “It’s just like we’ve literally arrived at a friend’s house, I guess. And then it’s like, do you want to stay here? I’m like, ‘sure.'”
Musk even attested that Trump is a very good host, explaining that one night when he stayed over the president called him to make sure he helped himself to some dessert in the kitchen.
“Then he’ll actually call late at night and say, like, ‘Oh, why don’t we make sure you get some ice cream from the kitchen?’ And then I went to the kitchen and got the ice cream and I ate a whole tub of ice cream,” Musk said, adding that it was caramel flavored.
“Don’t tell RFK Jr,” he joked.
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