Elon Musk acknowledged he is having “great difficulty” managing his various businesses while serving as a key adviser in the Trump administration and leading efforts to reform the federal workforce under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—all as Tesla’s stock takes a hit.
Musk made the admission during a rare Fox Business interview Monday night with Larry Kudlow, a former Trump official. When Kudlow asked how he was keeping Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and X afloat amid his political commitments, Musk didn’t sugarcoat his answer.
“With great difficulty,” Musk replied, pausing before adding with a sigh, “Yeah, I mean …”
Kudlow pressed further: “But there’s no turning back?”
Musk confirmed he is committed to “making government more efficient”, focusing on eliminating waste and fraud within federal spending.
“And so far, we’re making good progress, actually,” he said.
Musk’s deepening involvement in Washington appears to be weighing on Tesla’s stock, with the EV maker experiencing a significant share price drop. Investors are reportedly concerned about his shift toward right-wing politics, as Tesla’s core customer base has historically leaned toward environmentally conscious liberals.
Adding to Musk’s challenges, his social media platform X was hit by what he described as a “massive cyberattack” traced back to the “Ukraine area.” Thousands of users reported outages, and Musk said the attack was “done with a lot of resources.”
Musk, a close Trump ally, said his work with DOGE aims to curb federal spending and prevent financial mismanagement. He described his reaction after seeing the national debt compared to defense spending as a “wake-up call.”
“The goal here is, let’s not have America go bankrupt with waste and fraud,” he said. “That’s what I’m here for, and we’re making good progress.”
As of mid-February, DOGE claimed it had already saved the government $55 billion, though thousands of federal employees have lost their jobs as part of the cost-cutting efforts.
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