{"id":1173,"date":"2026-07-27T18:08:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1173"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T18:08:27","slug":"musk-says-he-got-carried-away-with-doge-cuts-which-are-set-to-kill-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1173","title":{"rendered":"Musk Says He Got \u201cCarried Away\u201d With DOGE Cuts, Which Are Set to Kill Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Read more When a Fascist Organization Set Up Shop in Their Town, Residents Fought Back<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Elon Musk has shared that he got \u201ccarried away\u201d during his time heading the supposed \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency,\u201d or DOGE, in the early months of the second Donald Trump term \u2014 with the billionaire seeming to express only mild regret for the sweeping, illegal government cuts that are slated to kill millions of people across the world over the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I got a little too involved in politics, got carried away, frankly,\u201d Musk said in an interview with The Economist<\/em> last week, when asked about DOGE. <\/p>\n

He said that the goal of DOGE was to address the federal deficit, \u201cwhere the interest payments exceed the amount of money spent on the Department of War.\u201d But, despite saying that he went too far, he still suggested that further cuts are needed.<\/p>\n

The sweeping cuts enacted by DOGE cost over 260,000 federal workers their jobs, reports have found, and countless more due to slashes to scientific research funded by the government. The cruelest cuts, however, came in the form of the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). <\/p>\n

The agency \u2014 though it\u2019s been criticized as an arm of U.S. imperialism \u2014 funded humanitarian efforts to provide food, shelter, and education to tens of millions of people abroad. Estimates by experts have found that these cuts are leading to the early deaths of thousands of people a day; some have estimated that they\u2019ve killed over 700,000 people so far.<\/p>\n

Research last year published in The Lancet<\/em> found that, by 2030, the DOGE cuts could cause over 14 million preventable deaths, including 4.5 million children and babies under 5. People in affected places have told U.S. media outlets that people in their countries are dying as a direct result of the cuts.<\/p>\n

In the interview, however, Musk doubled down on his assertion that nobody has been killed as a result of his work.<\/p>\n

When asked by Economist<\/em> editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes how many people have died, Musk said \u201czero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many NGOs are there that could step in?\u201d Musk went on, suggesting that humanitarian groups should have swept in after the abrupt cuts to replace the tens of billions of dollars\u2019 worth of aid being sent by the U.S. government. He also said that any claims of cuts to humanitarian programs are \u201cfalse.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cZero died because of DOGE. Zero point zero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody functions as fast as you do. If funding is cut off for antiretrovirals overnight, and it just stops, then people will die when they don\u2019t have access to them,\u201d Beddoes responded, referring to the devastating impacts to anti-HIV programs that were run by the U.S. and cut under DOGE.<\/p>\n

Read more Appeals Court Keeps Block on Trump Order Targeting Voting Rights<\/a><\/p>\n

Musk has vilified the leaders of NGOs that he claims could be stepping up. On Monday, Musk called World Central Kitchen founder Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s an \u201casshole\u201d after Andr\u00e9s criticized him on X.<\/p>\n

Musk has previously suggested that his work for the government was noble. \u201cWe spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead,\u201d Musk said in February 2025.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Katie Miller, wife to top White House aide Stephen Miller, last December, Musk said that he wouldn\u2019t do it again if given the chance, because it wasn\u2019t as successful as he had hoped. \u201cI think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically worked on my companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Musk and his DOGE lackeys have made out handsomely since they worked on DOGE. After SpaceX\u2019s IPO last month, Musk became the world\u2019s first trillionaire, with his net worth more than doubled since last year as the company gets billions in federal contracts from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Reuters<\/em> reported last week that a group of former DOGE employees have founded a startup, valued at $1.4 trillion, that aims to work with the government to provide AI-driven offensive military systems. The company, called Cathedral, has reportedly gotten $160 million in funding thus far, and is seeking to buy or partner with a data center for its operations.<\/p>\n

Other clips from the Economist <\/em>interview also circulated online over the weekend. In one segment, Beddoes confronts Musk with the idea that he\u2019s sorely hated by many members of the public. Indeed, polling has found that the majority of U.S. adults say they dislike him \u2014 an opinion that has steadily risen over the years, but shot up significantly while he was working with DOGE last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people do loathe you. But do you understand why? Do you think what you\u2019re doing is helpful to Western democracy?\u201d Beddoes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I \u2014 maybe some people do loathe me. I don\u2019t care,\u201d said Musk, who began stuttering and shifting around in his seat. \u201cThe fact that a quarter billion people follow me is that I think a lot more people actually like me than don\u2019t. And I think a lot more people hate you, and the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is certainly a loss of trust in journalism. I think, in part, there have been mistakes by journalists and journalism, I totally acknowledge that,\u201d Beddoes responded. \u201cBut I also think that the kind of polarized environment, particularly on social media, fostered by the kinds of things you\u2019re pushing on X, actually helps this. Makes it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more ICE to Reopen Private Prison as Massive North Carolina Detention Center<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research last year found that, by 2030, DOGE cuts could kill 14 million, including 4.5 million children under 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nMusk Says He Got \u201cCarried Away\u201d With DOGE Cuts, Which Are Set to Kill Millions - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=1173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musk Says He Got \u201cCarried Away\u201d With DOGE Cuts, Which Are Set to Kill Millions - 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