Tech billionaire Elon Musk admitted he is having “great difficulty” running his various businesses as he juggles an advisory role in the Trump administration and leads the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) efforts to overhaul the federal workforce, all while Tesla stocks fall.
Musk sat for a rare interview Monday night on Fox Business with former Trump administration official Larry Kudlow. The host asked him about the billionaire’s “call to action” within the administration and how he’s managing to keep his companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and social platform X up and running.
“How are you running your other businesses?” Kudlow asked.
“With great difficulty,” Musk replied.
The tech mogul, quiet, appeared to be gathering his thoughts for a longer response.
“Yeah, I mean…” he added, with a sigh.
“But there’s no turning back, you’re saying?” Kudlow questioned.
After a pause, Musk said he is in the administration “trying to make government more efficient,” to eliminate waste and fraud.
“And so far, we’re making good progress, actually,” he said.
Musk’s interview coincided with a large drop in Tesla shares. His role as a key White House adviser, primarily his work to cut federal spending alongside the DOGE, is largely seen as the reason why the electric vehicle (EV) company’s stock is falling.
His sudden shift to right-wing politics may not be sitting well with Tesla shareholders, who are generally seen as environmentally conscious liberals who chose the company for its EVs.
The interview also came as X was reportedly targeted in a “massive cyberattack” that Musk said was traced back to the “Ukraine area.” Thousands of users experienced outages, and the X owner said the attack was “done with a lot of resources.”
Musk, a key ally of President Trump, said in the interview that his goal with DOGE is to scale back federal spending. Seeing the national debt compared to the defense spending was a wake-up call for him, he added.
“The goal here is, let’s not have America go bankrupt with waste and fraud,” he said. “So, that’s what I’m here for, and we’re making good progress.”
As of mid-February, DOGE said it saved the government $55 billion so far, even as thousands of federal workers were without jobs.
