Elon Musk issued a journalism with a 'brutal' five-word statement after being questioned about DOGE's daily numbers, as the billionaire previously outlined that the private advisory board was saving America around $4,000,000,000 every single day.
Before the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was officially formed, it's soon-to-be leader Elon Musk touted that the advisory department would be able to conjure up at least $2,000,000,000,000 in savings before it ceased to exist in 2026.
Musk shortly went back on that commitment, calling it the 'best-case outcome' but hinted that it was an unrealistic goal for DOGE to achieve, and aiming for a meager $1 trillion would be more doable.
However, it has been 122 days since DOGE was officially introduced as a key part of the Trump administration and according to the department's own website it has only managed to find $170 billion in savings - and experts even cast doubt on the veracity of that figure.
Advert
With Musk set to depart from the government at the end of the month due to both his status as a special government employee and growing unpopularity, pressure has been mounted on the richest man in the world to explain DOGE's failure to reach its initial goals.
He faced challenging questions from Bloomberg Editor-at-Large Mishal Husain during the Qatar Economic Forum, as reported by The Hill, who pointed out the discrepancy between Musk's claims now and before Trump was sworn in for a second time.
She noted that Musk has previously pointed towards DOGE saving '$4 billion per day', but this would still make the department fall well short of the $2 trillion goal based on its current trajectory.
Advert
Elon didn't appear too pleased with Husain's questioning, and pushed back with a bizarre tirade, capped off with a 'brutal' five-word statement at the end:
"I feel you're somewhat trapped in the NPC dialogue tree of a traditional journalist, so it's difficult when I'm conversing with someone who's trapped in the dialogue tree of a conventional journalist, because it's like I'm talking to a computer," Musk proclaimed.
What he's referencing here is the somewhat limited number of conversation options that non-playable characters typically have in a video game when you're talking to them. There are only so many programmed responses that you can access, so Musk is essentially criticizing Husain for parroting the 'limited' and repeated questions of a conventional journalist.
He also followed this up by claiming: "I don't think any advisory group has done better in the history of advisory groups for the government. Now, we do not make the laws, nor do we control the judiciary, nor do we control the executive branch. We are simply advisers. In that context we're doing very well."
Advert
President Trump has previously indicated the 'limits' of DOGE and Musk's power within government, so it's clear that he might not quite have ultimate authority, but that still hasn't stopped him and his employees from tearing through what many consider to be critical areas and departments.
Musk has been slammed for his dismantling of USAID, with Bill Gates even claiming that his actions are 'killing children', and DOGE has even accidentally put national security at risk by firing key employees in the Department of Energy.
DOGE does claim that it has saved $1,055.90 per taxpayer across the entire United States, but that is still roughly 91% lower than what an overall savings total of $2 trillion would offer for the 161 million tax-paying adults in America.