Tech billionaire Elon Musk is reportedly looking back on his brief but highly visible involvement in politics, saying in a new interview that he believes he became more politically engaged than he intended.
Speaking with The Economist in an interview released Thursday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO acknowledged that his growing role in politics ultimately went further than he had anticipated.
“I think I got a little too involved in politics,” Musk said. “I got carried away frankly.”
Musk emerged as one of President Donald Trump’s biggest political supporters during the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $250 million to back Trump’s successful White House campaign.
Following Trump’s election victory, the president tapped Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly known as DOGE, a cost-cutting initiative aimed at reducing federal spending.
Reflecting on the effort, Musk said his primary objective was addressing what he viewed as the nation’s growing fiscal challenges.
“The goal with the sort of DOGE stuff was to try to do something about the deficit, which is massive,” Musk said.
He added that the initiative sought to examine government spending more closely to ensure taxpayer dollars were being used appropriately.
“We need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities,” Musk said.
According to Musk, those efforts generated significant criticism.
“And I got a lot of flak from this,” he said.
DOGE quickly became one of the most controversial initiatives of the Trump administration, overseeing widespread reductions in government jobs and funding across multiple federal agencies.
Although the program officially ceased operations on July 4, its influence had already been diminishing for more than a year after Musk stepped away from the administration in late May 2025.
Musk served in the administration for approximately four months before departing the White House.
His involvement in government also coincided with challenges for one of his largest businesses.
During his time leading DOGE, Tesla experienced a sharp decline in its stock price, with the company facing increased attention as Musk became one of the administration’s most prominent figures.
After leaving government service, Musk’s relationship with President Trump became strained over the administration’s signature spending legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The legislation, strongly backed by Trump, became the center of a public disagreement between the president and the billionaire entrepreneur.
The dispute marked one of the most closely watched political feuds involving two of the Republican Party’s most influential supporters.
Amid the disagreement, Musk threatened to launch a third political party, signaling frustration with the direction of federal spending. However, that effort never materialized.
Despite the public clash, the relationship between Musk and Trump appears to have improved in the months that followed.
Musk attended a White House dinner last November, a move that suggested tensions between the two had eased after their earlier dispute.
He also joined President Trump on a trip to China in May alongside other technology industry leaders, further signaling that the rift between the two men had subsided.
In his latest comments, Musk offered a candid reflection on his time in politics, suggesting that while his intention was to tackle government spending and the federal deficit, the experience ultimately drew him deeper into the political arena than he had expected.
His remarks come after a period in which he played an unusually prominent role in Washington, moving from one of the nation’s most influential business leaders to a central figure in the Trump administration’s effort to reduce government spending before returning his focus to his private companies.
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