Elon Musk expresses regret over his Department of Government Efficiency work
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has expressed regret as he looks back on his work with the Department of Government Efficiency, which sought to reduce wasteful US government spending. According to a report by US online media outlet Axios on the 17th (local time), Musk appeared in an interview for biographer Walter Isaacson's podcast 'The Builders,' set to premiere next week, and admitted, "What I should have done was stay more behind the scenes," and "I should have returned to focusing on AI a little sooner," Yonhap News reported.
Musk singled out artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to solve the US national debt. "You can't solve this problem just through austerity," he said. "The only way to resolve the national debt is by leveraging AI and robots."
Musk pointed out that there is no political will to cut spending in the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the judiciary. Aside from a tiny few such as Senator Rand Paul, he argued, none of those in power want spending reductions. In his view, the national debt problem could be solved if President Donald Trump made spending cuts his top priority, but that is unlikely to happen in reality. "If you try to fix the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies," Musk analyzed. "President Trump likes to be liked by others and doesn't want anyone calling him angry about stopping their funding."
Meanwhile, he continues to play the role of a political fundraising 'whale' in the upcoming US midterm elections. According to a Politico analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data released on the 15th (local time), Musk spent at least $276 million (about 370 billion won) supporting the Republican Party in the third quarter of this year alone, making him the top political donor of this election cycle, Yonhap News reported. Specifically, he donated $158 million (about 210 billion won) to 'Senate Leadership Fund,' a super PAC supporting Republican senators. He also spent more than $88 million (about 118.8 billion won) on 'America PAC,' created to help President Trump in the 2024 presidential election. He gave $10 million (about 13.5 billion won) to 'Lone Star Liberty PAC,' which supports Republican candidate Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race, and $20 million (about 27 billion won) to 'Congressional Leadership Fund,' which supports Republican House members.
Musk clashed with President Trump last year, but his relationship with the White House is known to have improved recently.
