Elon Musk has opened up on his “intense” first 100 days in the Trump administration, during which he sometimes slept in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House and saw Tesla vehicles vandalized across the country.
The billionaire spoke to a group of reporters in the Roosevelt Room on Wednesday about his experience establishing the Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump administration’s radical cost-cutting effort.
“It’s just been a very intense 100 days, where at times I was here full time. So, at the beginning, I was here in D.C. seven days a week for some of the weeks in the beginning, or close to seven days a week,” said Musk, according to The Hill. “And now we’re getting more of a rhythm, and so the amount of time that is necessary for me to spend here is much less.”
Musk’s status as a special government employee is set to expire at the end of this month. Last week, the Tesla CEO told investors in the company that he was planning on reducing the amount of time that he’s spending on government matters to focus on his companies. However, this doesn’t mean that he’ll fully depart from government, telling the press Wednesday that he plans to work with DOGE one to two days each week.
When asked if he would ever depart the agency entirely, Musk said it was “at the discretion of the president.”
“I’m willing to continue on average, one to two days a week, which probably means coming to D.C. every other week for three days, type of thing,” said Musk.
He conceded that DOGE has faced significant pushback and dozens of lawsuits, several of which name Musk specifically as they question the scope of his job in the administration.
Tesla has also become the of subject of protests up and down country, with people showing up at showrooms, targeting charging stations and vandalizing cars. While many of the protests remained peaceful, some grew violent as Molotov cocktails were thrown at cars and shots were fired at some dealerships.
“It’s like 60 percent fun, 70 percent fun. Depends on the week,” said Musk. “I mean, being attacked relentlessly is not super fun. So, you know, seeing cars burning is not fun. But, when I feel like we’re doing good for the American taxpayer and stopping wasteful spending and fixing computer systems, I feel like that’s a good thing.”
Musk initially had the goal of cutting trillions of dollars in spending. However, he revised that figure to just $160 billion Wednesday. He still argued that the trillion-dollar goal could be reached, but said, “It’s a longer road to go.”
“How much pain is the Cabinet and Congress willing to take? It could be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints,” he said.
He added that it remained unclear whether there was “sufficient political will in Congress and elsewhere to actually do that.”
“And we may not succeed,” he noted.
The billionaire also shared unusual details about his relationship with the president during his first 100 days back in office.
“I guess we’re good friends, and we’ll be on Air Force One or Marine One, and he’s like, ‘Hey do you want to stay over?’ And I’m like, ‘Sure,’” said Musk.
Amid his stint in the Lincoln Bedroom, Musk said Trump once called him to tell him to make sure to grab some ice cream from the kitchen. Musk said he took a whole container of caramel Häagen-Dazs, according to The New York Times.
“I was like, this stuff’s amazing,” he said.
While the White House have said that the work of DOGE will continue, it remains unclear to what degree.
Musk said the agency was like a “volunteer organization” and that members of staff can be part of it for as long as they wish. “It’s up to them,” he said, and that he will meet with congressional members of the DOGE caucuses in the House and the Senate.
“The meetings that I’ve had with the House and Senate on DOGE have been extremely positive. Sometimes … there are things that need to be cleared up, or we’re not going to be perfect, we’re going to make mistakes sometimes. So we fix the mistake,” said Musk.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve been effective. Not as effective as I’d like. I think we could be more effective. But we’ve made progress,” he said, according to Business Insider.
At one point, Musk was asked who would lead DOGE after his departure.
“DOGE is a way of life. Like Buddhism,” he said, according to The Times.
When pushed, he added: “Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?”