Elon Musk sat down with Walter Isaacson on The Builders podcast and gave the most honest assessment of federal spending anyone in his position has offered in years. He also admitted he was wrong about his own project.
“The appetite is not there at the presidency, the House, the Senate, or the judiciary,” Musk said. “Basically, no one in authority in the government whatsoever, really, with maybe a few rare exceptions of like the Rand Pauls of the world type of thing, actually wants to reduce spending.”
Musk further added that “Maybe if the president made that his primary goal, we could do that,” but also acknowledged that “If you try to solve the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies. President Trump likes to be liked. He doesn’t like people calling him, being upset about … some funding being stopped.”
Then came the part that will sting in certain quarters. Maybe, Musk allowed, it could be done if the president made it his primary goal. But if you set out to stop wasteful spending, you make a great many enemies — “and Trump likes being liked.” He doesn’t enjoy people calling him upset about their funding being shut off.
That is a friendly billionaire who spent hundreds of millions electing this administration saying the president lacks the stomach for the fight. He’s right, and so was every conservative who said so when DOGE was announced.
Musk also conceded he got carried away. The thing should have run a month or two, he said, not the stretch it occupied.
Look at what it managed in that time: 13,440 contracts terminated, 15,887 grants cancelled, 264 leases ended, substantial workforce reductions, USAID largely dismantled, with claimed savings of $215 billion. Respectable work, and it moved total federal spending essentially not at all.
That isn’t a failure of effort. It’s a lesson about where the money is. Contracts and grants and lease payments are the visible fat. The spending that actually drives the deficit is statutory — entitlements and interest — and no executive-branch task force can touch a dollar of it. Only Congress can, and Congress has no intention of trying.
Musk’s conclusion follows logically and is worth sitting with: we aren’t going to save our way out of this. His answer is AI and robotics producing enough growth to outrun the obligations.
Maybe. The sturdier conclusion is simpler. A government that will not cut will eventually be cut by the bond market, and that conversation is considerably less pleasant.
Meanwhile, sixteen congressional Democrats — Warren, Raskin, Jayapal, Crockett, Meeks and the rest — have signed on to investigating Musk over DOGE if they take the majority. Their grievance, stated plainly, is that he shut off funding streams.
HERE WE GO ? 16 Congress Democrats call on launching investigations into Elon Musk for more than 8 “crimes”
If Democrats win Midterms it’ll be back to endless Investigations, Committees and Hearings against their political opponents
The Democrats who want to investigate Elon… pic.twitter.com/jDHGby152q
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 21, 2026
Mind you, these mental midgets haven’t built a thing or made vast numbers of Americans’ lives better and more fulfilling. In fact, they and their party (historically) are the main reason our entitlements are breaking the bank.
As for Musk, he named the disease. Let’s see if a majority of elected officials have the guts to do the right thing and take his advice.
