Elon Musk’s “DOGE” Cuts: Admissions, Death-Toll Claims, and Financial Gains

Elon Musk disclosed that he “got carried away” while leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during the early months of the second Donald Trump administration. DOGE’s mandate was to slash federal spending to reduce a deficit in which interest payments exceeded the Department of War budget. The program eliminated more than 260,000 federal jobs and terminated the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which had funded humanitarian aid for tens of millions abroad.

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Experts estimate that the abrupt cuts have produced “thousands of people a day” in early deaths, with some calculations putting the total at over 700,000 fatalities to date. Research published in *The Lancet* projects that, by 2030, DOGE-related reductions could cause more than 14 million preventable deaths, including 4.5 million children under five. Polling indicates a growing majority of U.S. adults now express dislike for Musk, a sentiment that rose sharply during his DOGE tenure.

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In an interview with *The Economist*, Musk asserted that “zero” people have died as a result of DOGE, rejecting the death-toll estimates. He suggested that NGOs could have filled the aid gap and labeled claims of humanitarian cuts as “false.” Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes countered that halting funding for antiretroviral programs would inevitably cause deaths, and she questioned Musk’s impact on Western democracy. Musk responded that some people “do loathe me” but he “doesn’t care.” Following DOGE, Musk’s net worth more than doubled after SpaceX’s IPO, and former DOGE staff launched a $1.4 trillion AI-military startup, Cathedral, which has already secured $160 million in funding.

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• “I think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly,” — Elon Musk

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• “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead,” — Elon Musk

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• “Some people do loathe you. But do you understand why? Do you think what you’re doing is helpful to Western democracy?” — Zanny Minton Beddoes

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• “Well, I — maybe some people do loathe me. I don’t care,” — Elon Musk

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