Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk defended his work in President Donald Trump’s administration — through the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News’ afternoon panel show “The Five.”
Regular liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov pressed the SpaceX CEO on his efforts, suggesting that he was using DOGE to benefit himself personally — and Musk quickly pointed out the fact that he was effectively under a microscope while he was working with the Trump administration, a fact that would make it very difficult for him pull off anything underhanded even if he wanted to do so.
Tarlov first declared herself a “liberal Tesla lover” — and informed Musk that she had “not thrown any Molotov cocktails recently” — before she began her line of questions regarding DOGE.
“I wanted to talk to you about what DOGE has been doing,” Tarlov said. “So you’ve been making cuts to a lot of the agencies that have opened investigations and regulatory battles with your companies. At the same time, you continue to get billions in government contracts, Tesla gets billions in subsidies — how do you explain that to the American people?”
“Everything that DOGE does is an open book,” Musk replied. “We are the most transparent action — most transparent organization in government ever! Every single DOGE action is listed on the DOGE.gov website, it’s also listed on the X handle. So if anyone has a concern about any one of those actions, they can bring that up, they can raise that.”
Musk went on to say that he knew DOGE would make mistakes, but that they would do their best to admit them and correct them as quickly as possible.
“Nobody bats a thousand,” he added. “I am under such an extreme spotlight, so much scrutiny, that it’s literally impossible for me to get away with anything nefarious — and obviously, nor do I wish to!”
He also took questions from co-host Greg Gutfeld, who asked when Musk would be willing to join his eponymous late night show — an invitation Musk said that he would be happy to accept. Gutfeld also asked Musk what advice he might give to young people who were struggling with fear of failure on how to be less “risk-averse.”
“With respect to what to tell young people, I think it’s always good when thinking about something you’re afraid of, thinking about fear — look fear straight in the eye, and it will disappear,” Musk said. “The nature of fear is that people don’t look at it. Look at it directly, and it will be gone.”
