Elon Musk revealed that DOGE has discovered even more egregious examples of waste, fraud, and corruption within the federal government, with one of the nation’s top economists describing the recent findings as “absolutely ludicrous,” leaving conservatives rejoicing online.
For context, in a May 4, 2025, interview on Fox News, economist E.J. Antoni of the Heritage Foundation weighed in on Elon Musk’s potential departure from DOGE and explained the department’s major impact, which he said he believes will continue after Mr. Musk returns to his work in the private sector.
In the interview, Antoni argued that DOGE’s work “definitely needs to continue,” adding, “There’s a reason why the government budget is as many trillions of dollars as it is. It is much too large because it has much too much abuse, corruption, fraud, waste, etc. And Doge is proving that with literally being only weeks on the job and having uncovered hundreds of billions of dollars again, of waste in all those different categories.”
Continuing, Antoni decried the attacks on Tesla vehicles in protest of Elon Musk’s work with DOGE, saying, “Much of this has to do with with actions by radical leftists who, essentially, instead of having a public debate, have chosen to just use fear and intimidation tactics and engage in nothing less than domestic terrorism.”
Moving on, Antoni asserted that multiple factors have contributed to the recent dip in Tesla’s stock, including the leftist vandalism of the company’s dealerships. He explained, “I think there’s more than one thing at play here. It’s not simply the fact that Elon is not devoting all of his time exclusively to Tesla. It is things like the domestic terrorism that’s going on. It is the broader stock market volatility. So I am not by any means counting Tesla down and out here.”
Additionally, Antoni described DOGE’s recent discoveries as “absolutely ludicrous,” and criticized the left for their negative reaction to the department’s work. He elaborated, “I would love to hear from literally anyone on the left a single, specific thing that Doge has cut, which we don’t actually want them to cut.” Antoni added, “And conversely, Doge has come up with a very long list, some of which you were just scrolling on the screen earlier, things that have been cut, that should have been cut, because we never should have been wasting taxpayer money on these things in the first place.”
Concluding the interview, Antoni said that the Democrats’ reaction to DOGE’s recent discovery of thousands of people “over 125 years old receiving Social Security benefits” was the most telling sign of the party’s inherent negative bias against Mr. Musk, saying that the left’s criticism “tells you everything you need to know.”
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When Fox News shared the interview on X, conservatives described Musk as “the Albert Einstein of our era,” with one user with the handle Leo Kasura saying, “He is doing hard work. That’s why he’s great.” In response to the post, Elon Musk himself simply replied, “True.”
Watch Antoni’s Fox News interview:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video