Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk lamented Friday that his role as DOGE chief actually puts his companies at a disadvantage — as he also took a shot at “jerk” Tim Walz after the failed veep contender mocked Tesla’s falling stock.
“It’s actually disadvantageous for me to be in the government, not advantageous,” the Department of Government Efficiency honcho, 53, argued during an interview with Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier.
“If I wasn’t in the government, I could lobby and I could push for things that are advantageous to my companies, and probably get it – probably receive them,” the SpaceX, Tesla and Neuralink founder explained.
“My companies are suffering because I’m in the government,” he said, pointing to the recent spate of attacks targeting Tesla vehicle owners, dealerships and charging stations.
“Do you think it helps sales if, you know, dealerships are being fire bombed? Of course, not.”
The Trump administration official and tech tycoon then turned his attention to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who mocked Tesla’s falling stock price during an event in Wisconsin last week.
“I mean, you have Tim Walz, who’s a huge jerk, you know, running around on stage with the Tesla stock price, where the stock price had gone in half, and he was overjoyed,” Musk said. “What an evil thing to do. What a creep. What a jerk.”
“Like, who derives joy from that?”
Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, claimed that he was joking when he said that watching Tesla’s stock price plummet gives him “a little boost during the day.”
“Does that sound like a good person to you? I don’t think so,” Musk said of the governor.
When asked about what keeps him up at night, the father of 13 said it was the world’s declining birth rates, among other issues.
“The birth rate is very low in almost every country, and unless that changes, civilization will disappear,” Musk said. “America had the lowest birth rate, I believe, ever — that was last year … and nothing seems to be turning that around.”
“Humanity is dying, and people — it’s just not something we’ve evolved to react to.”
Musk also expressed concern about “the strength of America.”
“America is the central column that holds up all of Western civilization,” he said. “If that column fails, it’s all over.”
The DOGE chief also revealed what “basic level” changes President Trump’s cost-cutting initiative has made to the federal government that will survive beyond the commander in chief’s term in office.
“We certainly would like a lot of what we’re doing to be permanently enshrined” via congressional action, Musk explained, adding, “but a lot of the changes we’re making are very basic things that I think are likely to remain in place, such as the improvements to the Treasury financial system.”
Musk’s team at the Treasury Department has helped implement a mandatory code system for government payments that allows congressional appropriations to be tracked and requires agencies to explain what they’re spending taxpayer money on.
“So we made those changes to the system. They weren’t there before. I think those changes will remain,” Musk mused.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
