Elon Musk has spoken out with a brutal response to Bono after the iconic singer referred to DOGE cuts as ‘pure evil’.
The frontman of U2 slammed the Tesla boss during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
During the three-hour chat, Bono talked about Musk where he criticized the Trump administration and, in particular the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk took on the role as the head of the body after forming a close friendship with the president during his election campaign.
However, earlier this month, he announced that he was stepping back, taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to write: “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
Elon Musk had a brutal response for Bono (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Speaking to Rogan, Bono said that a study from Boston University had estimated that the cuts to government spending will cause over 300,000 deaths worldwide.
The singer added: “There’s food rotting in boats, in warehouses – 50,000 tons of it. The people who knew the codes, who were responsible for distributing that aid, were fired. That’s not America, is it?”
Now, Musk has hit back on X, writing that Bono is ‘such a liar’ and an ‘idiot’ before going on to claim that ‘zero people have died’ because of the cuts to USAID.
Later, Musk added: “South Park lampooned Bono as the biggest s*** in the world. They were right.”
Musk has also spoken of his disappointment in the Trump administration after it announced a ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, which will bring in a new budget promising tax cuts and further military spending, while cutting some federal health and energy programs.
Bono has criticized the Trump administration (DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning, Musk said: “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”
Musk went on to say: “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.”
Musk also spoke to the Washington Post claiming that DOGE has become a scapegoat, saying: “DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything. So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC, to say the least.”
Featured Image Credit: DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that he is officially stepping down from his role in government and now AI has predicted who might be in the running to replace him.
The world’s richest man was first appointed as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) earlier this year after forming a close friendship with President Donald Trump.
During Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2024, the Tesla boss donated $288 million, according to a report by the Washington Post.
While not technically a government department, DOGE is purported to be an outside advisor to the president on federal spending.
And Musk has spent the last few months hacking away at the federal budget, with most of the savings being gained by canceling contracts and triggering mass layoffs.
However, Musk is now taking a step back after he announced yesterday (May 28) that he was leaving his post in government.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the billionaire wrote: “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
Now, ChatGPT has offered its own insight into who could be next for the role in DOGE.
Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE
The AI chatbot has listed Amy Gleason as a top contender after she has been working as the department’s acting administrator since February.
ChatGPT went on to say that Gleason has ‘substantial experience in data management and public sector innovation’.
Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget
Due to his experience in ‘budget management and alignment with the Trump administration’s objectives’, Russell Vought is considered to be a prominent figure in the running for leadership of DOGE.
Elon Musk is leaving his role in government (Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Steve Davis, a senior official of DOGE
According to the AI, Steve Davis is a ‘longtime associate’ of Musk who has been ‘instrumental in DOGE’s operations’.
He has taken on some key roles within DOGE including the modernization of the Social Security Administration’s software systems, making him a top option for Musk’s vacant role.
Thomas Shedd, the director of Technology Transformation Services
Thomas Shedd has a ‘background in engineering and software development, including experience at Tesla’, according to the AI.
With his experience for the digital transformation of the federal agencies, this makes him another front runner for the leadership spot.
Featured Image Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Love him or hate him, the world’s richest man has been at the focal point of controversy since he stepped foot in the White House as President Donald Trump’s right-hand man.
As head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk was ordered to oversee $3 trillion in federal budget cuts, leading to mass job losses and leaving many security officials ‘terrified.’
However, what the governmental organization actually saved was leaning more towards $160bn in April, with many claiming the math isn’t adding up.
Consequently, his billion-dollar enterprises like Tesla have been on a rapid downfall in terms of market value and sales, coupled with worldwide protests and vandalism.
Revenue from the company’s electric car sales dropped a staggering 20% last quarter, and its overall net profit is plummeting 71% year-on-year.
While the mogul recently announced he’ll be stepping back from politics to refocus on Tesla, big-name investors continue to question his leadership alongside claims that the company is searching for someone to replace him.
Now, it seems the billionaire has come across an article from The Atlantic detailing the ‘decline and fall’ of Elon Musk.
In response, the tech mogul replied reposted a screenshot of the article on X with a single tearful emoji: ‘😢’ before following up with ‘@gork’.
Unlike OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Grok is an X’s AI assistant and chatbot developed by xAI company that Musk prides on answering questions with witty and ‘rebellious’ answers.
The parody Gork account cheekily responded with: “yo elon u good or what. that article got u looking like a sad victorian poet fr.”
Musk had a one word reply to an article detailing his ‘decline.’ (Chip Somodevilla/Staff/Getty)
The article reportedly paints Musk as a chaotic failure in his role at DOGE alongside his other ambitious plans, writing: “Musk came to Washington all Cybertrucks and chain saws, ready to destroy the bureaucracy, fire do-nothing federal workers, and, he bragged, save taxpayers $2 trillion in the process.”
It’s not the first time Musk has clashed with The Atlantic either.
Earlier this year, he joked: “Best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of The Atlantic magazine, because no one ever goes there.” Meanwhile, President Trump weighed in his criticism of the publication at an event with Louisiana’s Republican governor: “I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me, it’s a magazine that’s going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it.”
But things could soon turn around for the 53-year-old after a groundbreaking discovery of $1.5 trillion worth of lithium deposit was found hiding in a supervolcano in Oregon.
Given that lithium is a key component in Tesla’s electric vehicle batteries, Musk could see a boom to his ever-growing net worth.
Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Former Trump official reveals ‘proof’ Elon Musk actually thinks Trump is ‘an idiot’
Musk’s inflammatory comments have been interpreted as a jibe against Trump
Despite being near inseparable half a year ago, one former Trump official has revealed the ‘proof’ that Elon Musk thinks that the president is an ‘idiot’ as the richest man in the world bows out from politics.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump haven’t always been as close as they’ve seemed in the past six months, as inflammatory comments thrown from both sides over the past decade made their close partnership seem even more surprising.
Musk quickly became the president’s ‘First Buddy’ though, with his own mother chiming in on how close the pair were. Ascending to head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), it became clear how much influence the South African held in Trump’s administration, even if the limits of his power were outlined after a few worrying mistakes.
Musk apparently thinks that Trump is an ‘idiot’ according to one former White House official (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
However, with Musk set to leave DOGE and politics altogether in a bid to solve Tesla’s ‘code red situation’, one former Trump official has revealed that the billionaire apparently thinks Trump to be an ‘idiot’.
As reported by the Independent, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci made the bold claim during this year’s Hay Festival, basing it on an incendiary comment that Musk previously made about one of Trump’s current key advisors.
Despite only being in his former role for 11 days before getting the sack from Trump, Scaramucci has clearly picked up the ability to distinguish tense political relationships, and he could be on the money with this particular assessment.
“Musk thinks Trump’s an idiot, and let me tell you know I know, because Musk doesn’t think like we do,” Scaramucci outlined during a talk with co-host Alastair Campbell.
“Musk did something to let everybody know he’s not happy with Trump. He put out on X that Peter Navarro is dumb as a box of rocks. And then the next tweet was, ‘I would like to apologize to the box of rocks, because I just offended to the box of rocks’,” he explained, gesturing that Navarro and Trump are one and the same due to their closely aligned trade policy.
“This is Navarro’s trade policy. This is Donald Trump’s trade policy. You see, he thinks he’s an idiot.”
In essence, Scaramucci is claiming that in clearly outlining his opposition to Navarro in reference to his trade policy views, he’s implicitly stating his opposition to Trump too – giving a dual target to the ‘dumb as a box of rocks’ comment.
In calling Navarro a ‘moron’, Scaramucci believes this to also be aimed at Trump due to their shared views (Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Musk shocked many when he spoke out against President Trump’s controversial tariff plan, outlining the dangers it would cause within the automotive industry which he is obviously a key part of as CEO of Tesla.
Now that Musk’s time in government has come to an end, the emerging rift between him and Trump is seemingly becoming clearer. Many political experts have pointed towards the tech mogul’s failure to secure the Wisconsin Supreme Court vote as the real turning point, but the pair’s failure to mention each other on social media is also a clear sign that it wasn’t a particularly amicable ending.
Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Staff via Getty
Elon Musk has revealed who punched him after he sported a surprising black eye at an Oval Office meeting recently.
The billionaire appeared in a press conference with the president last week to bid farewell to his time in the administration.
Musk had taken on the role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after forming a close friendship with President Donald Trump during his election campaign.
Last year, the Tesla boss donated a whopping $288 million to Trump’s campaign and, since the inauguration in January, Musk has been busy hacking away at the federal budget as part of DOGE’s mission to cut back on government spending.
However, earlier this month, Musk announced that he was leaving his role.
Taking to his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: “As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President @realDonaldTrump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.
“The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”
People were shocked to see the billionaire turn up to his final press briefing sporting a black eye which he was questioned on.
Many people took to social media to ponder what had happened, with one user writing: “Why is Elon Musk’s right eye, black and blue??????”
And another added: “Does anyone know why Elon has a black eye?”
Musk replied during the press conference to say that he got the shiner while ‘horsing around’ with his five year old son, who he referred to as ‘lil X’.
Musk said: “I said, ‘go ahead and punch me in the face’, and he did.”
Trump added: “X could do it. I didn’t notice it, actually.”
Elon Musk appeared in the Oval Office with a black eye (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The SpaceX founder also joked that he ‘wasn’t anywhere near France’ when he got the black, referring to an incident that took place last week where the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, was filmed shoving President Emmanuel Macron’s face.
Trump went on to praise Musk, saying: “We’ll remember you as we announce billions of dollars of extra waste, fraud and abuse. DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people on computers.
“I actually asked Elon one time, ‘what’s their primary thing?’ And they have a lot of primary things all having to do with being smart.”
Musk added that he believes DOGE will ‘continue to be doing an incredible job’.
