Elon Musk reflected on his stint as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and declared things are “basically unfixable.”
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO delivered his pessimistic outlook for change at the federal government during an interview on the All-In Summit, appearing virtually from Tesla’s global engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
“I haven’t been to DC since May, ” Musk said, explaining that he has not returned to the nation’s capital since a public falling out with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“That was a hell of a side quest,” the billionaire joked, before being asked if he took away any lessons from his time at the White House.
“The government is basically unfixable,” he said to laughter from the panel that included venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg.
“I applaud David’s noble efforts — it’s good to have talented people in the administration,” Musk said, praising Sacks, who is serving as the White House AI and crypto czar.
“But at the end of the day, if you look at our national debt, which is insanely high, the interest payments exceed the Defense Department – I’m sorry, the War Department budget, and they keep rising,” he said, as he referred to the Defense Department and its rebrand as the Department of War.
“If AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we’re toast,” Musk added.
Last week, Trump hosted tech leaders including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Musk was noticeably absent from the gathering at the White House. Musk said he was invited to the dinner but posted on X that he “could not attend.”
I was invited, but unfortunately could not attend. A representative of mine will be there.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2025
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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