Elon Musk Defends DOGE Cuts, Says Bill Clinton Would Be Branded a ‘Far-Right Republican’ in 2025

Elon Musk said Bill Clinton and Al Gore would be branded as “far-right Republicans” in 2025 for wanting to have “sensible” government spending, based on the criticism he and the Department of Government Efficiency have recently received.

Musk made the comment while speaking virtually at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco on Wednesday morning. The Tesla chief said that he has been surprised by DOGE’s critics labeling its cuts to the federal government as a “some radical, far-right initiative.”

“I’m like, actually, if you just literally took Clinton’s words and Gore’s words, they’re the same words we’re using, almost identical,” Musk said, while chuckling lightly. “So, I mean Clinton and Gore sound like what would today be called far-right Republicans by saying, ‘Yes, we need to, you know, not have crazy deficits, and we do have sensible spending.’ That’s what they were saying — we’re saying the same thing.”

Clinton, who was president from 1993 to 2001, famously declared “the era of big government is over” during his ’96 State of the Union address.

“We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within its means,” the former president said at the time.

On Wednesday, Musk reiterated his goal with DOGE is to cut at least $1 trillion — or about 15% — from the annual federal budget. President Trump on Tuesday night, during his speech before Congress, gave Musk a shout-out for spearheading the new department, which has been on a cost-cutting spree within the federal government since January.

DOGE’s cuts have led to heavy criticism from many left-leaning citizens and politicians, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who blasted the SpaceX boss as “not smart.”

“This dude is probably one of the most unintelligent billionaires I have ever met or seen or witnessed,” Ocasio-Cortez said about Musk last month.

On Wednesday, Musk said that he has been “making a lot of enemies” with DOGE’s cuts, “because when you cut spending, you don’t make friends.”

To cut down on government inefficiency, Musk also suggested privatizing the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak. “We should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” he said.

In non-DOGE news from the conference, Musk shared some thoughts on artificial intelligence. He took a dig at Google Gemini and ChatGPT parent OpenAI — one of his favorite targets — saying both were “infected with the woke-mind virus.” His comment comes a few weeks after X released Grok 3, the latest version of its AI model.

Musk further added that AI is “going to profoundly change everything,” and that while he is optimistic on AI overall, he does have concerns for what that means for human beings moving forward.

“You know, at some point, I wonder what will humans do?” Musk said. “Because AI really will be able to do everything.”

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