'This is a revolution': Musk shrugs off DOGE criticism, defends department

Elon Musk defended his work leading the Department of Government Efficiency Thursday, pushing back on mounting criticism of the massive disruption caused by DOGE in an unusual joint interview with other top leaders of the group.

Musk minimized the number of people who have been fired by DOGE amid a wave of federal layoffs. His team lambasted the government's records, payment and other systems and promised to implement a tech savvy, user-friendly approach. And they shrugged off concerns about how DOGE has operated.

"This is a revolution and I think it might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution," said Musk, a billionaire tech entrepreneur who has become a leading figure in President Donald Trump's second administration.

DOGE is blitzing through federal agencies, generating criticism from Democrats and unions that it's sowing turmoil and harming important government functions. There have been mass layoffs and entire agencies effectively shuttered. Many of the DOGE initiatives have been challenged as illegal and are tied up in court.

The CEO of electric car company Tesla, Musk also lashed out Thursday at people he accused of spreading "lies and propaganda" that he blamed for a spate of vandalism at Tesla locations.

"We’re going after them," Musk said in a subsequent one-on-one Fox interview.

DOGE mostly has operated behind the scenes. The joint interview was a notable public moment for the DOGE team, which - other than Musk - has not been highly visible despite the intense media attention on their efforts.

Here are five takeaways from the interviews.

Musk blames 'far left' for Tesla vandalism

Musk's work with DOGE has made him a lightning rod for critics, who have staged protests at Tesla locations, including a nationwide "Tesla Takedown" campaign.

There also has been vandalism and acts of violence directed at Tesla, including at dealerships in Florida and Colorado and a Tesla Collision Center in Nevada.

Asked by a reporter this month if he would label those attacking Tesla locations "domestic terrorists," Trump said “I'll do it. I'm going to stop them … because they're harming a great American company."

“The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said a week later in announcing charges against "several perpetrators" of Tesla attacks.

But Musk - a self-described "free speech absolutist" - focused less on the attackers Thursday than on the information he believes they're absorbing, delving into territory about what speech is acceptable.

"What’s happening it seems to me is they’re being fed propaganda by the far left and they believe it," Musk said of those attacking Teslas and Tesla locations.

Musk said "the real problem" is not the "crazy guy that fire bombs a Tesla dealership. It’s the people pushing the propaganda that caused that guy to do it. Those are the real villains here, and we’re going to go after them."

"And the president’s made it clear, we’re going to go after them," Musk continued. "The ones providing the money, the ones pushing the lies and propaganda. We’re going after them.”

Musk minimizes layoffs

During the interview, Anthony Armstrong - a former Morgan Stanley banker who is working as a senior adviser for DOGE at the Office of Personnel Management - defended how his team has approached reducing a federal workforce of more than 2 million employees.

“There’s a very heavy focus on being generous, being caring, being compassionate and treating everyone with dignity and respect," Armstrong said.

Armstrong said federal workers are leaving "largely through voluntary means."

Early on DOGE sent an email to every federal worker offering them pay and benefits through Sept. 30 if they voluntarily leave. Since then there have been mass layoffs of probationary workers and the Trump administration started the process for a further "reduction in force" - or RIF - aimed at employees with longer tenure.

Armstrong said currently less than 0.15 of the federal workforce has been "given a RIF notice."

"Basically almost no one has gotten fired is what we're saying," Musk interjected.

More than 100,000 federal employees lost their jobs in the past two months through layoffs of probationary employees, who are new to government work or recently moved between agencies or accepted a promotion. Another about 75,000 federal employees accepted the original buyout offer Trump extended shortly after he took office.

And additional layoffs have begun at a host of agencies.

About half of Department of Education employees were laid off. The Department of Veterans Affairs is laying off about 16% or 76,000 workers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is laying off more than 1,000 people, or about 20% of its staff. And Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he will cut about 10,000 full-time jobs from the Cabinet department.

Social Security problems

The chaotic situation around DOGE has raised concerns that federal programs such as Social Security that many Americans rely on could be impacted.

Those fears were amplified when the Washington Post reported this week that the Social Security system is "engulfed in crisis." The report said the Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month.

Fox played clips of Democrats accusing DOGE of attacking Social Security.

Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE software engineer, said the criticism "doesn't line up with my experience on the ground." He added that he's trying to combat fraud and "make the experience better."

'Apple Store like experience'

Throughout the interview the DOGE team lambasted the federal governments record-keeping and technology programs and pledged to improve the experience.

Joe Gebbia, the billionaire co-founder of vacation rental company Airbnb who is working with DOGE, highlighted the system for keeping federal employee retirement records, which are stored in an old Pennsylvania mine.

"The process takes money months and we're going to make it just many days," Gebbia said of processing retirement records, adding: "I really think it's an injustice to civil servants who are subjected to these processes."

"We really believe the government can have an Apple Store like experience," he added.

'A lot of complaints along the way'

Fox interviewer Brett Baier said DOGE has been "pretty disruptive." Musk made no apologies.

Musk acknowledge that there would be "a lot of complaints along the way" but shrugged them off. He said his experience is that those who complain "the loudest and with the most amount of fake righteous indignation" are "fraudsters."

Contributing: Sarah Wire and Joey Garrison

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'This is a revolution': Takeaways from Elon Musk/DOGE interview