The Tesla CEO held an hourlong Q&A session with reporters in the White House’s Roosevelt Room this week, during which he said he felt the majority of his work establishing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was done, although it has not lived up to his expectations. “In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve been effective. Not as effective as I like…but we made progress,” he told reporters. 

Musk added that he would be stepping away from Washington, and going back to running Tesla, his EV company, which has seen a 71% drop in profits during the first quarter of the year. The company has faced immense backlash due to Musk’s role in the Trump administration, his massive cuts to the federal workforce, and his embrace of European far-right nationalists. Those moves have also resulted in protests against the automaker, which have sprung up at dealerships across the country. 

Though Musk’s time leading DOGE may be coming to an end, he added that he believes the agency’s work will continue, and may even extend past its scheduled termination date of July 4, 2026. “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?’” 

The official DOGE website states that Musk’s work has saved the government an estimated $160 billion, falling short of his $1 trillion goal. But some outside estimates believe the cuts could actually cost the government around $135 billion this fiscal year. And one model that tracks Treasury data found that the government is actually spending more this year compared with this time last year. Cuts of that magnitude could lead to more long-term effects on the economy if government services are disrupted, like tax collection and scientific research.  

They have also come with a massive human toll—out of a workforce of around 2.3 million government workers, approximately 280,000 jobs have been cut this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement and executive coaching firm. Strategies to cull the federal workforce have included sudden return-to-office mandates, mass resignation offers, emails asking them to list their weekly accomplishments, and terminations based on their probationary status. Those job losses are likely to affect the economies of major cities such as Washington, D.C., that have a high number of federal employees.

Musk believes that the next phase of executing DOGE’s work lies with Congress. “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.”