Billionaire Elon Musk admits he got “carried away” while hanging around President Donald Trump and should have played more of a background role while in his circle.
Musk appeared Tuesday on journalist Walter Isaacson’s “The Builders” podcast to discuss his company xAI, which he said he began as a “side hustle” of sorts but “didn’t really pay close attention to” in part due to his time spent in politics with Trump and spearheading the nonofficial Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.
When Isaacson asked Musk if he felt his time in politics “was too much of a distraction” from xAI, Musk responded, “I think I had it going for too long.”
However, he said, it was “important to elect President Trump to, sort of, you know, steer things more in the direction of a free market economy.”
“But then what I should have done, I think, was be more in the background,” Musk said. “I mean, it was interesting to sort of go around with President Trump and, you know, go on the Marine One and Air Force One and all that sort of stuff.”
“But was that too seductive in a way?” Isaacson asked.
Said Musk, “It was a little bit.”
The billionaire made headlines while campaigning with Trump and after the president was reelected, when he was positioned to lead DOGE, a department assigned to cut government spending.
Among the notable incidents were him doing a Nazi-like gesture after Trump was reelected and promoting DOGE by waving around a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2025.
Isaacson made note of Musk’s controversial incidents, telling him that he seems “to get a bit too intoxicated by it in a way with the chainsaws and all.”
“Yeah, I think that’s true. Yeah, yeah, carried away basically,” Musk admitted.
He told Isaacson his time working with Trump was “kind of cool because I’m just there in the Oval Office while, you know, all these like big, momentous decisions are being made, and, you know, just sometimes having some impact on what’s being done.
“I should have been more like I said, been more in the background, and probably only had it last for, you know, a month or two, because at that point you’ve sort of seen most of what there is to see within a month or two,” he added.
Musk’s former department has come under fire after multiple reports shed light on how ineffective DOGE really was.
A report from the Government Accountability Office found that the federal government paid employees nearly $10 billion not to work last year due to DOGE’s cuts. The same office also disputed DOGE’s claim of saving $110 billion as of July 7, 2026, as lacking “supporting evidence.”
Ultimately, Musk claimed it was impossible to solve the deficit from within the government and came to the conclusion “that the only way we’re going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots.”
He told Isaacson that if Trump made solving the deficit his “primary goal,” it is achievable.
“But the problem is, if you try to solve the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies in that situation,” Musk said. “President Trump is not, you know, he likes to be liked, and … he doesn’t like people, you know, calling him, being upset about why is some funding being stopped type of thing.”
