Elon Musk walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the best case scenario would be to make $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that he is

While campaigning for Donald Trump in October, Elon Musk claimed he could slash “at least $2 trillion” in government spending. Now that Musk has started laying the groundwork for his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency,

Elon Musk on Wednesday backtracked on his goal to cut $2 trillion from the U.S. budget in his role as the co-head of DOGE, Donald Trump’s proposed new advisory body which aims to slash waste and regulations to lower taxes.

Musk's Tesla stake rose by $111 billion — 65% — last year. All but $2 billion of Musk’s Tesla gain and about 98% of what other Tesla shareholders gained came after Election Day, when Musk began hanging out extensively with Donald Trump and started calling himself Trump’s “first buddy.