In a searing, emotionally raw interview that aired this morning on CBS Sunday Morning, Elon Musk let loose on what he now describes as the “most humiliating chapter” of his professional life—his time in Washington, D.C., as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump.
“I came in with a mission,” Musk said, visibly tense. “I wanted to cut waste, eliminate dead weight, and bring Silicon Valley speed to a system built for stagnation. But somewhere along the way, I became the whipping boy—blamed for everything, lied to at every turn, and then discarded like I never mattered.”
From Billionaire Visionary to Bureaucratic Scapegoat
When Trump appointed Musk to lead DOGE in 2023, many saw it as a bold move—a maverick billionaire brought in to disrupt the federal machine. But Musk now says that beneath the public-facing praise, he was little more than a convenient target for blame.
“Every single time something went wrong—a delay, a budget overrun, a political scandal—it somehow traced back to DOGE,” Musk said. “Did a hurricane hit Florida? Somehow DOGE didn’t move fast enough. Did the IRS get hacked? Blame DOGE. It became absurd.”
Behind closed doors, Musk says senior officials in Trump’s inner circle mocked him, joked about his “space toys,” and privately referred to him as “the cleanup boy.”
“I thought they respected what I was trying to do,” he said. “Turns out, they just needed someone to take the heat while they passed trillion-dollar disasters and called them wins.”
The Breaking Point: Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”
According to Musk, the final betrayal came just two weeks ago when he was handed the final draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—Trump’s massive new spending proposal that, despite its name, promises to balloon the national debt by $3.8 trillion over the next decade.
“I was stunned,” Musk said. “Buried in the fine print were cuts to clean energy programs, a gutting of government tech infrastructure I spent a year building, and a provision to penalize EV owners with a $250 ‘battery tax.’”
But that wasn’t the worst part.
“Someone had written a note in the margins of one page,” Musk said. “It read: ‘Let Elon explain this to the press. He loves that sh*t.’ That was the final knife.”
He paused, clearly emotional.
“That’s when I knew—I was never one of them. I was just a PR shield. And the moment I wasn’t useful? Gone.”
Musk’s Departure and What Comes Next
Musk is set to step down from DOGE at the end of this month. Insiders say his departure will be “immediate and unceremonious.” No farewell ceremony has been planned. No thank-you speech. No tweet from the president.
Sources close to Musk say he’s furious, devastated—and possibly ready for revenge.
“He feels used, betrayed, and humiliated,” one longtime associate said. “He gave up everything—Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink—for two years to try to make government smarter. And now? They act like he never existed.”
Already, some hardline Republicans have fired back, accusing Musk of trying to shift blame and “acting like a crybaby billionaire.” But public sympathy may be swinging his way, especially after the viral clips of his emotional CBS interview began flooding social media under hashtags like #JusticeForElon and #WhippingBoyNoMore.
A Warning to Future Outsiders
In the interview’s final moments, Musk offered a chilling warning to any future disruptor who dares step into Washington’s web of bureaucracy.
“They don’t want change,” he said, eyes narrowing. “They want control. And if you come in with good intentions, they’ll flatter you, use you… and then discard you the moment you threaten their system.”
He looked off-camera and added: “I thought I was working with patriots. Turns out, I was just standing in their way.”
As Musk prepares to return full-time to Tesla and SpaceX, one thing is clear: his time in Washington is over—but his anger isn’t. And with his influence, resources, and millions of devoted followers, this “whipping boy” may not be done swinging just yet.
