Musk predicted DOGE would be able to save $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) by the middle of next year, if empowered to by the president and Congress. “This is not the end of DOGE but really the beginning,” he said. “I liken it to a sort of Buddhism. It’s like a way of life.”
Even the reporters present for Musk’s low-energy exit were more interested in other topics when it came to asking questions.
Musk brushed aside the only spicy inquiry, which pertained to a New York Times report published just hours earlier alleging his use of drugs was significantly more extensive than previously known, including regular – sometimes daily – use of ketamine.
The paper claimed that around July last year, when he endorsed Trump for president, Musk told associates his ketamine use was causing bladder problems. People close to him worried about the drugs’ impact on his health and business ventures, the Times said.
In the Oval Office, Musk was dismissive. “The New York Times. Is that the same publication that got a Pulitzer prize for false reporting on the Russia-gate [scandal]? Is that the same organisation? I think it is … let’s move on,” he said, without explicitly denying the claims.
Trump is trying to get the Times and The Washington Post stripped of their awards for reports on alleged ties between the state of Russia and his 2016 election campaign.
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But Musk has acknowledged his drug use in the past. In March last year, he told interviewer Don Lemon he had a prescription for ketamine to treat a “negative state of mind” that he likened to depression, and used only a small amount weekly or fortnightly.
Musk, who was once associated with the Democrats and progressive politics, indicated he now felt more at home on the conservative side and said he would remain a friend and adviser to the Republican president.
“The fundamental moral flaw of the left is empathy for the criminals but not empathy for the victims,” he said. There had also been “immense judicial overreach” in response to Trump, Musk said, and it was “undermining people’s faith in the legal system”.
In the past week, Musk has also criticised elements of the Trump agenda, including what Trump calls his “big, beautiful” tax bill that raises the debt ceiling and which the Tesla chief said was antithetical to the work of DOGE. He and Tesla also opposed the bill for reversing Joe Biden’s energy tax credits.
But all of that was overlooked for a fond farewell that saw Musk leave, not with the bang of a rocket blasting off, but the quiet whirr of an electric car trundling into the distance.
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