Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary recently appeared on CNN, where he weighed in on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to reduce the size of government bureaucracy and cut wasteful spending. Mr. Wonderful left the panel speechless after claiming not enough federal employees have been fired thus far.
Citing his extensive experience in business, O’Leary claimed the Trump administration should fire “20 percent more,” similar to how a private equity shop would gut a bankrupt company. He also stressed that DOGE isn’t “whacking enough” and needs to continue trimming the “fat and waste” off of the federal government.
“I think the issue is they’re not whacking enough,” he began. “There’s this concept in private equity, when you get a bankrupt company and you go in there, you cut 20% more than your initial read, and then you find, like a pool of Mercury, the organization gels back together again.”
O’Leary emphasized to the CNN panel, “Always cut deeper harder when there’s fat and waste.” Speaking about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which evidently needs a major refresh, Mr. Wonderful asserted, “The FAA, it’s not the people. The code is COBOL. It’s from the 60s. It needs capex put into it for the technology we upgraded to make it safer.”
Evoking imagery of fattened poultry when illustrating the federal government, O’Leary said, “Fat like a chicken. All of these agencies are like big fat chickens dripping over barbecues of fat. This is the best barbecue I’ve ever seen. But I don’t think it’s happening fast enough.”
“They’re not cutting enough. Keep slashing, keep hacking,” he said before urging Trump to take advantage of his mandate. “While you have a 24 month mandate before the midterms, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, more more cutting. Believe me, it’s going to work out just great. Everybody should be happy…”
One panelist interjected asking if federal employees responsible for the “nuclear codes” should be cut as well. O’Leary confidently responded, “Cut them too. Cut every cut everything, because if you don’t see what they’re doing and they can’t show you that they’re adding value, you whack.”
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Watch O’Leary lecture the CNN panel on cutting government waste below:
Political commentator Thomas Hern shared the clip on X, writing, “Kevin O’Leary just had a fantastic rant calling for DOGE to fire more people.” He added, “The CNN panel was left dumfounded.” Another person said, “O’Leary is 1000% right. Cut to the bone and then when u see gaps fill them in. There are a lot of C players are worse. We have a chance to get this done and right the ship.”
Note: The featured image is a screen shot from the embedded video.