Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that his budget-cutting effort on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump would most likely not find $2 trillion in savings, backtracking on a goal he set earlier as co-head of a new advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Musk told political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that the $2 trillion figure was a “best-case outcome” and that he thought there was only a “good shot” at cutting half that.
Musk’s lowered estimate is a significant downgrade from his earlier view. At a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27, Musk said he’d be able to cut the federal budget by “at least $2 trillion.”
