Elon Musk Dodges Trump Questions... Before Diving Into His Own Gripes About Government
Elon Musk doesn't want to talk about politics... unless he's got something to complain about.
The billionaire's interview with 'CBS Sunday Morning' began on a stiff note as he shut down questions about President Donald Trump's ongoing tariff tumult and the administration's bid to throttle international students from coming into the country.
But soon after trying to swerve from any contentious topics, Musk began grousing about the government, unprompted.
'My opinion of the government is that the government is just like the DMV that got big,' he told interviewer David Pogue. 'So when you say, 'Let's have the government do something,' you should think, do you want the DMV to do it?'
Musk tried to shut down CBS from asking about anything other than "spaceships" pic.twitter.com/5fwMScFyim
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 1, 2025
Treading carefully around his qualms with the Trump regime, Musk said, 'You know, it's not like I agree with everything the administration does. So it's like, I mean, I agree with much of what the administration does, but we have differences of opinion.'
'You know, the things that I don't entirely agree with,' he added. 'But it's difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention.'
'So then I'm a little stuck in a bind where I'm like, well, I don't want to, you know, speak up against the administration, but I don't want to...' he trailed off with a heavy sigh.
Musk then deflected blame for the chaos wrought by his wade in politics, saying, 'I also don't want to take responsibility for everything the administration is doing.'
... but then he started going on effusively about his views on government and Trump pic.twitter.com/q2MabLuSfS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 1, 2025
In April, the Department of Government Efficiency's chief architect announced he would be retreating from his role on Capitol Hill after spending months trying to disembowel the country's vast bureaucratic ecosystem.
As Trump feted the Tesla CEO with an Oval Office send off on Friday, he told reporters, 'Elon's delivered a colossal change in the old ways of doing business in Washington' and that he'd still 'back and forth' between the White House and his batch of businesses.
Musk, who was sporting a black eye and a black shirt which said 'The Dogefather' during the gathering, also insisted his federal budget-busting project would be just fine without him.
After accepting a ceremonial key from the president, he said, 'I think the DOGE team is doing an incredible job. They're going to continue to be doing an incredible job.'
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