Elon Musk on Saturday defended the White House DOGE Office, arguing that the task force is “extremely transparent.” Musk has faced a growing backlash over his work to reshape the federal government.
“We’re very transparent with the Department of Government Efficiency,” Musk told Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini virtually at a meeting of Italy’s League Party.
“Any action that we make, we post on the doge.gov website, and we post on our X account, so it’s extreme transparency,” he said.
Musk described the challenges he’s faced while implementing President Donald Trump’s vision of a leaner government.
“It’s very difficult to reduce the size of the bureaucracy and government spending,” he said. “It comes with immense opposition, even when the things that we are cutting make no sense at all.”
“We’re only cutting the most obvious terrible expenses that make no sense,” he said. “Nonetheless, we get attacked like crazy.”
Since its formation in January, DOGE staffers have upended myriad departments and agencies, from the Departments of Treasury and State to the Social Security Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and USAID.
A new report from the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that DOGE’s actions have led to over 216,000 firings throughout the federal workforce.
Pushback against Musk and DOGE, meanwhile, has swelled among the general public. Nationwide protests — called the “Tesla Takedown” — targeted the company he leads last week. At the nationwide anti-Trump demonstrations this weekend, Musk was again the focus of many protesters.
Musk’s influence may be waning amid the growing backlash. On Tuesday, he suffered a major political loss as Susan Crawford, the Democratic-backed candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, easily defeated conservative judge Brad Schimel. Musk’s America PAC poured millions into the race to support Schimel.
This week was also a highly consequential one for Trump, as the president on Wednesday rolled out his “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of trading partners — which has drawn broad criticism and caused one of the worst market sell-offs in recent memory.
Notably, while speaking with Salvini on Saturday, Musk said he wanted to see a “zero-tariff” system between the United States and Europe, a surprising break from the rhetoric coming from the Trump White House.
“I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” Musk said. “That’s what I hope occurs.”
