The world’s wealthiest man says he ‘got a little too involved in politics’ after devastating global aid and the federal workforce

Elon Musk admits he “got carried away” working inside Donald Trump’s administration as the unelected director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, where he implemented mass firings and radically cut federal spending.

“I think I got a little too involved in politics. I got carried away, frankly,” he told The Economist in a wide-ranging interview published Thursday, but offered few specifics on what he regretted.

But the world’s wealthiest man — who pumped millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign before he was deputized to oversee the president’s brutal cost-cutting operation — defended the work of DOGE and his dismantling of the nation’s global aid agency that he once promised to put through a “wood chipper.”

“We need to sort of take a close look at spending and make sure that money is being spent in sensible ways and that it is not wasted or spent on fraudulent activities. And I got a lot of flack for this, obviously,” he said.

I wonder if he can just see the writing on the wall, or if he was actually using a cannon to kill a fly? Maybe its that SpaceX isn’t doing so hot? Maybe its the investigation related to tRump going on about how Musk “really knows those voting machines” and how they’ll “never have to vote again”.

Either way, people are dead because of him. We won’t forget, and there will be an accounting for this.

  • treesartlife@lemmy.world
    36·
    2 天前

    He is responsible for deaths of millions of people. He is a repulsive disguisting psychopath. A murderer.

  • Polyphilic@lemmy.ca
    18·
    2 天前

    Apparently whats sensible isnt monitoring threats to food production, of disease outbreaks, its bombing Arabs…

    I hate this timeline

  • dasrael@lemmy.zip
    15·
    2 天前

    I’d love to see a mob get carried away with him in return. That sure would be amusing to watch. I highly doubt justice will ever be dispensed his way otherwise.

  • Folstar@lemmus.orgEnglish
    12·
    2 天前

    Reminder: The USA passed the False Claims Act in 1778 and later developed a full legal framework for combating fraud in 1863 with the Lincoln Law. Fraud at the federal level had a solution that worked time and time again for CENTURIES.

  • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
    204·
    2 天前

    I was a government contractor for four years. I made really good money, worked from home, and had really good benefits. A year ago, Elon and Trump decided to stop paying the contract I was on. Between outsourcing and AI, I couldn’t find anyone to hire me. I had to work in a grocery store for six months with ten years of web development and project management experience. I start my job as a mailman on Monday. I’ll never forgive them and forsake anyone associated with them. Until the seas dry and the land breaks, I wish suffering and damnation upon them.

    • Stormy@thelemmy.club
      128·
      2 天前

      I was a woman in the military.

      I can’t even look at myself in the mirror anymore, haven’t left the house for a week.

      I wish them a jail cell.

    • Wispy2891@lemmy.world
      20·
      2 天前

      it’s infuriating seeing the two assholes cutting everything and destroying the lifes of millions of people for literal pennies, then wasting trillions on a useless war that has only economic downsides, just because bibi asked it nicely

    • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      6·
      2 天前

      Gonna be in the same place as soon as my daughter goes to public school. I really can’t justify paying at a minimum $3000 for child care in my area AND not see my kid. My wife has a solid job in another industry that won’t be touched by AI. Thankful for her.

      Grats on the mailman job. Sincerely, I couldn’t find a new job in software but it was also melting my mind being told I need to use AI all day long. I will happy to make less and do something else once the $36000 a year in childcare is not required. I have that privilege to wait after a decade in software thankfully.

    • Anivia@feddit.org
      2·
      2 天前

      I had to work in a grocery store for six months with ten years of web development and project management experience

      That sucks, but long term that would have been an inevitable outcome anyway. Web development experience is becoming a useless skill on the job market, as you have learned from first hand experience finding a job

  • SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 天前

    They got everything they wanted. The country is in a death spiral toward Somalia-style libertarianism, and it can’t be stopped.

  • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
    104·
    2 天前

    According to the estimates of Brooke Nichols, DOGE cuts to foreign aid programs had led to some 300,000 deaths by May 2025, mostly of children. By February 2026, when her counter that estimated the number of deaths was retired, the numbers were kept at the one-year mark from when the cuts began: 781,343 deaths caused by the funding discontinuation.

    Source

    Fuck him.

    781,343 deaths.

    You don’t just get to go “oops!” and walk away.

    Nearly eight hundred thousand dead in the first year. Probably much more by now.

    • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
      32·
      2 天前

      He’s still ‘a little too involved’ in politics. He’s flinging his shit around the UK and EU now, acting like he knows best.

      Sounds to me like he’s admitting culpability for his crimes though. Some prosecutor should get on that.

      • turtlesareneat@piefed.caEnglish
        7·
        2 天前

        Oh he’s biding time. He sees what Trump did. He is going to come back as a politician after taking capitalism to its logical conclusion of “evil.”

    • InputZero@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 天前

      The worst part is that he’s the wealthiest person to ever exist. He has more than enough money to help. He could be telling everyone in his employment to begin to undo the mess he made, but he won’t. He may donate a few million to a charity (that he owns) to build up some good will with the poors. The people he pays to be around him will tell him what a saint he is, caring for the poor. He’ll feel good about himself again. While millions of children still die.

    • artyom@piefed.socialEnglish
      4·
      2 天前

      We had to cut $400M in global aid and kill 800k kids in order to fund a pointless $50B war (and counting) that doesn’t exist but also we already won, where we killed tens of thousands more (and counting).

  • kurmudgeon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    2 天前

    Elon Musk is a colossal fucking moron. A pure complete dipshit. Why people keep giving this stupid fuck money is beyond me. He is an egotistical, narcissistic, racist, elitist, bigoted asshole. Let’s just all keep throwing $$$ at this piece of shit.

  • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
    53·
    2 天前

    “Sorry everyone, just got swept up in the moment. No hard feelings, right?” – A. Hitler