Trillionaire Elon Musk reportedly believes that solving the national debt problem from within the confines of the government is difficult, betting instead on AI and robots to help bridge the deficit.
Elon Musk Says Lawmakers Were Not Serious About Cutting Spending
According to a report published by Axios on Saturday, Musk said his time with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the early days of President Donald Trump‘s second term showed how difficult it was to fix the national debt deficit through government channels.
DOGE was initially set up to be led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, but Ramaswamy left the initiative in January 2025, leaving Musk in charge. It was tasked with cutting excess federal spending. However, according to data from the U.S. Treasury at the time of writing this article, the U.S. national debt stood at roughly $40.39 trillion as of Oct. 15.
“If you try to solve the deficit and stop wasteful spending, you make a lot of enemies,” Musk said, opining that most lawmakers in the House, Judiciary, as well as the Senate, barring a few exceptions like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), were serious about cutting spending.
He then said that Trump “likes to be liked” and that he did not want people calling him upset about budget cuts. The report cited comments made by the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX) CEO during an upcoming podcast interview with biographer Walter Isaacson.
AI will Solve Debt Crisis
“The only way we’re going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots,” Musk said during the interview, while adding that he should have “focused” on AI sooner than he did. “We’re not gonna solve it by trying to save our way there,” Musk added.
The Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO added that he should have been “more in the background” during his time with the Trump administration.
Notably, Tesla, last year, announced it was shifting away from being a traditional automaker and transitioning towards robotics and self-driving. The EV giant sunset its premium Model S and Model X vehicles to boost the Optimus humanoid robot production in California, which Musk says will represent most of Tesla’s value alongside the Cybercab.
Also worth noting is that Musk, in the past, has backed AI and robots as a silver bullet to solve several issues. He has stated that the technology would enable universal high income, which has been criticized by leaders like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Sanders also criticized Musk’s involvement in politics after reports emerged that the trillionaire was bankrolling GOP leaders ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The Vermont Independent said that Musk was spending more than $300 million to help Republicans.
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