In an hour-long Q&A session with news outlets in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Musk answered a series of questions about his cost-cutting DOGE team as he prepared to step back from his role within the Trump administration.

In one exchange, Musk revealed that Trump, whom he described as a “good friend,” would occasionally invite him to sleep in the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom—often when he returned late from travel.

“He was like: ‘Where are you staying?’ I was like: ‘I don’t know. At a friend’s house, I guess.’ And then he was like: ‘Why don’t you stay here?’ I was like: ‘Sure,'” Musk told reporters.

He also recalled one occasion when the president asked him to pick up ice cream from the White House kitchen.

“He’ll actually call late at night and say, ‘Oh, by the way, make sure you get some ice cream from the kitchen,’” Musk said, jokingly adding: “Don’t tell RFK.”

Musk also spoke about his West Wing office, which he called “comically tiny” and said it only got a “glimmer of sunlight.”

The Tesla CEO said he planned to keep it to use when he’s in Washington, which he said will be just one to two days a week. 

Musk has been under pressure to return his focus to his companies, especially Tesla, which has suffered from his controversial role within the Trump administration.

Despite Musk’s decision to scale back his Washington presence, the billionaire has said that DOGE will continue without him.

Musk’s team was set to run until July 4, 2026, but the billionaire suggested that the group could help oversee federal spending until the end of 2028.

“DOGE is a way of life, like Buddhism,” he said. “Buddha isn’t alive anymore. You wouldn’t ask the question: ‘Who would lead Buddhism?'”

DOGE’s $2 trillion dream

Musk also acknowledged that DOGE had fallen short of some of its loftier goals.

The billionaire had originally promised to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget by the end of the fiscal year. However, DOGE’s current savings are at $160 billion.

Some critics have argued that the cost of layoffs, legal fights, and rehiring may cost the taxpayers more than the cuts themselves.

He acknowledged that the team had not been “as effective” as he would have liked, but praised the group’s overall effort.

“In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve been effective. Not as effective as I’d like … but we’ve made progress,” he told reporters, adding that some of the resistance to DOGE had come from inside the administration.

“There’s a long way to go,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult … It’s like: How much pain is the Cabinet and Congress willing to take? It can be done. But it requires dealing with a lot of complaints.”