Musk isn’t giving up on dream of $1 trillion in savings

Donald Trump has said goodbye to Elon Musk, with the world’s richest man saying that cutting government spending was still not as hard as colonising Mars.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk (L) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

Elon Musk says it’s a “tough call” but his goals of colonising Mars and making life interplanetary are more difficult than cutting government spending, as he expresses optimism that his Department of Government Efficiency can still achieve one trillion dollars in savings over time.

Speaking in the Oval Office at his farewell press conference with Donald Trump, the world’s richest man – who is winding up in his role as a special government employee – said the DOGE had made more than $160bn in spending cuts.

But he made clear its efforts to cut waste would continue without him.

Mr Musk, the outgoing leader of the DOGE who was wearing a black “Dogefather” t-shirt and dark jacket, was sporting a bruise on his eye and revealed he sustained the injury after asking his son X to punch him in the face. “I said ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face.’ And he did.”

Amid reports of extensive drug use in the New York Times – including ketamine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and a daily pill box – Mr Musk was defensive when he quickly dismissed a question that was prefaced with a reference to the newspaper.

“The New York Times. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer Prize for false reporting on the Russia-gate? Is that the same organisation?” he said. “They might have to give back that Pulitzer Prize. That New York Times? Let’s move on.”

Mr Musk made clear that his departure was “not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning.”

“My time as a special government employee necessarily had to end. It was a limited time,” he said. “But the DOGE team will only grow stronger over time. The DOGE influence will only grow stronger.”

“I’d liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It’s a way of life,” Mr Musk said. “It is permeating throughout the government. And I’m confident that overtime we will see a trillion dollars of savings and a reduction in a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction.”

He said DOGE had calculated the value of savings achieved so far were more than $160bn but this figure was climbing. “We expect that number will probably go over $200bn soon,” Mr Musk said.

Mr Trump said that “today it’s about a man named Elon.”

“He’s one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced. He stepped forward to put his very great talents into the service of our nation and we appreciate it. I just want to say that Elon was worked tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform program in generations.”

The friendly comments from Mr Trump come amid growing signs of disagreement between the world’s richest man and the direction of key elements of the administration’s economic policy, including the failure of the US President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” to make deeper spending cuts.

In excerpts of an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the world’s richest man said he was “disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit.”

“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” he said. “But I don’t know if it can be both.”

Mr Musk was asked about what changes he would like to see made to the bill in the Senate, but he did not get a chance to respond as Mr Trump took the spotlight. The President swiftly declared that it was an “unbelievable bill.”

“It cuts your deficits,” he claimed. “It’s a huge cutting. But there are things I’d like to see maybe cut a little bit more”

Mr Trump then said he would like to see a “bigger cut in taxes … I’d like to see it get down to an even lower number.”

Asked what the biggest roadblock to making cuts was, Mr Musk said that it was “mostly just a lot of hard work” and “going through, really, millions of line items and saying does each one of them make sense of not make sense.”

“It’s a tough call. But I think colonising Mars and making life multiplanetary is harder.”

Mr Trump said he was totally committed to the DOGE cuts permanent and went through a shopping list of savings it had made so far. He said that Mr Musk had “changed the mindset of a lot of people.”

“We’re going to do it very surgically,” Mr Trump said. “We’re going to continue on the march. We are making America great again.”

Mr Trump said that Elon’s service to America was “without comparison” and made clear he was “really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth I think. I have a feeling. It’s his baby.”

Towards the end of the press conference, Mr Musk said the “fundamental moral flaw of the left is empathy for the criminals and not empathy for the victims.”

“That needs to stop,” he said. “There’s been immense judicial overreach. And it’s unconstitutional and it was never intended. And it’s undermining people’s faith in the legal system.”