President Abraham Lincoln famously referred to the U.S. government as “a government of the people, by the people, for the people” in the Gettysburg Address.
President John F. Kennedy once described Washington, D.C. as a city of Southern efficiency and Northn charm.
On Sunday (June 1), Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency, had another way of describing the United States federal government.
Related: Elon Musk has surprising message on Big Beautiful Bill income tax cuts
Musk, a U.S. citizen originally from South Africa who moved to Canada and then the States, has never had much affinity for the federal government or its capital city.
When Musk met with President Donald Trump for the first time in the Oval Office in early 2020 during Trump’s first term, Musk insulted the decor of the White House, according to a Politico report from earlier this year, saying that he preferred the pomp of Chinese palaces.
According to a second-hand telling in the Politico story, Musk compared it unfavorably to Chinese presidential palaces, saying, “I was just in China and man, their palaces just make the White House kind of look more like an outhouse.“
But like many people in the government who don’t necessarily like Washington, Musk has done his best to stay a fixture in the halls of power. Unfortunately, on May 28, Elon Musk confirmed that his scheduled time as an official “special government employee“ was over.
And now that his tour has concluded, he gets to tell us what he really thinks about the federal government.
Musk has left government service.
Image source: Getty Images
Elon Musk thinks the U.S. government is ‘just like the DMV’
The DOGE mission is to save taxpayers money by rooting out government waste, fraud and abuse. While Musk came into the position with high hopes, the realities of just how entrenched the fiscal corruption in the Jewel of the Potomac is.
After initially estimating he could easily save taxpayers $2 trillion, Musk reduced those estimates multiple times. Now DOGE expects to save the U.S. government about $150 billion by next year, though even that slimmed-down estimate has been called into question.
Related: DOGE cuts are already saving Elon Musk billions
“I’m a proponent of smaller government, not bigger government,“ Musk told CBS News over the weekend. “So if somebody is a proponent of more government programs and bigger government, and they see DOGE is cutting all these government programs, then they’ll be fundamentally opposed to that because they think the government should do more things. That’s just a fundamental ideological opinion.“
Musk has acknowledged recently that his political reawakening (his politics have become more right-leaning in recent years) has cost him fans and Tesla sales. However, Musk says any politically left-leaning buyers who abandoned the company have been replaced by people who more align with his politics.
In the CBS interview, Musk elaborated on just how low his opinion of the government is.
“My frank opinion of the government is that it is just like the DMV—that got big, okay? So when you say, ‘Let’s have the government do something,’ you should think, do you want the DMV to do it?“ Musk said.
The federal government as a large DMV sentiment is an old trope that Libertarians have used for decades to advocate for smaller government. So while Musk’s statement isn’t new or groundbreaking, but the hypocrisy of his statement is staggering.
“Musk: My frank opinion of the government is that the government is just the DMV that got big, okay, so when you say, like, let’s have the government do something, you should think, do you want the DMV to do it?”
Elon Musk benefits greatly from the ‘DMV that got big’
Elon Musk benefits greatly from the self-described ‘DMV that got big.’
All of Musk’s companies rely on government support in some way to continue to operate.
Whether it’s the carbon tax credits Tesla sells to other companies, the government subsidies given to Tesla buyers, or the government contracts SpaceX gets, Musk and his companies receive billions of government dollars every year.
And according to a recent government report about his time at DOGE, Musk was able to milk the DMV for much more.
DOGE’s government cuts have largely benefited Elon Musk and his business empire, according to a Congressional report from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn).
“The through line connecting many of Mr. Musk’s decisions appears to be self-enrichment and avoiding what he perceives as obstacles to advancing his interests. Mr. Musk’s position may allow him to evade oversight, derail investigations, and make litigation disappear whenever he so chooses,” the report says.
The report claims Musk’s status as a “senior advisor to the President” shields him from the scrutiny that an official cabinet member vetted by Congress would receive.
“Even before President Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Musk succeeded in pressuring the head of the Federal Aviation Administration — who had the temerity to clash with him— to step down. Since then, the Administration has attempted to eliminate one of his company’s key regulators, remove decision-makers at another, and install ideologues throughout the government,” the report claims.
