Elon Musk says he has not set foot in Washington, D.C. since his role in Trump’s administration came to an end.
“I haven’t been to D.C. since May. That was a hell of a side quest,” Musk said during an interview at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles. The Tesla boss left his position with Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency at the end of May having failed to deliver on his lofty cost-cutting goals and sparking a furious backlash against his own businesses.
“The government is basically unfixable,” Musk, speaking from Palo Alto, lamented in the interview, a recording of which was uploaded on YouTube on Tuesday.
“If you look at our national debt, which is insanely high, the interest payments exceed the War Department budget,” Musk explained. “So, if AI and robots don’t solve our national debt, we are toast.”
Musk made concerns about national debt central to his attacks on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” in June, which led to the explosive end of their alliance. Their relationship soured when the Tesla CEO began taking public shots at the legislative package, culminating in him calling it a “disgusting abomination” and “pork-filled.”
The barbs soon turned personal. Musk claimed that the president is in the government files connected to the investigation of sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein, and that is the “real reason” they have not yet been made public. Musk later deleted the post, saying he’d gone “too far.”
Both men have softened their tone toward each other, with Trump—who threatened to deport Musk during their feud—now calling him a “good man,” despite him having gone “off the reservation.”
“He’s got 80 percent super-genius, and then 20 percent, he’s got some problems,” Trump said on “The Scott Jennings Show” last week. “And when he works out the 20 percent, he’ll be great.”
On Wednesday, Musk lost his status as the world’s richest man, according to Bloomberg. Musk’s $385 billion fortune was eclipsed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose wealth rocketed by $101 billion to a total of $393 billion after Oracle’s stock jumped 41 percent in its biggest-ever single-day surge.
Tesla’s stock, meanwhile, is down 13 percent for the year. Musk could nevertheless still become the world’s first trillionaire thanks to his new pay package from the EV maker—though only if he can dramatically increase the company’s market value.
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