DOGE chief Elon Musk said Monday that he is running his businesses “with great difficulty,” as shares of his automotive firm Tesla suffered their worst drop in a half-decade, and as his social media company X experienced several outages.
Musk also said during an interview on Fox Business that he expected to remain in the Trump administration for another year.
Tesla’s stock has fallen every week since Musk joined the Trump administration as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is engaged in a broad, controversial effort to reduce federal government spending and employee headcount.
The electric vehicle company has lost more than 50% of its market capitalization, equal to nearly $800 billion.
“It will be fine long-term,” Musk wrote in a tweet replying to a post on X that noted Tesla’s biggest single-day stop drops in history.
On Monday, Musk said there are currently more than 100 people on DOGE’s team, positioned in nearly every government agency.
He said that the number might increase to 200.
“Unless we’re stopped, we will get to $1 trillion of savings,” Musk predicted.
Musk’s estimates of savings have been challenged, and DOGE has deleted some of the largest purported savings that it listed on its website.
Since DOGE began its efforts, federal government employment fell by 10,000 jobs in February, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In addition to Tesla and X, Musk’s other businesses include the space exploration company SpaceX and the neurotechnology company Neuralink.
In Monday’s interview, Fox Business host Larry Kudlow said that as head of DOGE, “You’re giving up your other stuff.”
“How are you running your other businesses?” Kudlow asked.
Musk replied, “With great difficulty,” and chuckled.
“Yeah, I mean,” Musk sighed.
“I’m just here trying to make government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud, and so far we’re making good progress, actually,” he said. “Our savings at this point exceed $4 billion a day. So it’s very significant.”
Tesla shares close regular trading down more than 15.4% on Monday.
Musk blamed the outages that X experienced Monday on “a massive cyberattack” from internet protocol addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
He did not provide any evidence for that claim.
Musk earlier Monday in a tweet directed at Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly wrote, “You are a traitor,” after the senator posted about a visit he made to Ukraine over the weekend.
“Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin,” Kelly had written, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who ordered his nation’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Kelly, who is a former U.S. Navy pilot and NASA astronaut, fired back at Musk’s attack.
“Traitor?” Kelly wrote. “Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”
The back-and-forth between the two men comes as the Trump administration pressures Ukraine to reach a ceasefire with Russia, and to accept concessions that include giving the United States a stake in Ukrainian mineral resources and a willingness to cede territory to Russia.