Since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been running roughshod over the federal government. DOGE has announced the closing of whole government agencies and the firings of countless federal workers, with questionable legality.
Throughout this process, Musk has frequently posted on X about what he’s doing, often exaggerating how much money is being saved or outright misrepresenting what is happening. What’s become clear is that Musk has very little understanding of how the government works.
This week, Vice President J.D. Vance admitted that Musk has made “mistakes” during his reign of terror across the government.
“Elon himself has said that sometimes you do something, you make a mistake, and then you undo the mistake,” the vice president said over the weekend in an interview with NBC News.
NEW: In an interview on Air Force Two, Vance discussed Musk’s “mistakes” while acknowledging “good people” working in federal government.
He also talked about his economic outlook, his role on foreign policy, the Kennedy Center boos and 2028 (kind of). https://t.co/XGgEW0didZ
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) March 14, 2025
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“I also think you have to quickly correct those mistakes,” Vance added, stating that “there are a lot of good people who work in the government—a lot of people who are doing a very good job.”
“I think some people clearly are collecting a check and not doing a job,” Vance said of the DOGE process. “Now, how many people is that? I don’t know, in a three million-strong federal workforce, whether it’s a few thousand or much larger than that.”
Also, in the interview, the vice president addressed the recent incident in which he was booed at the Kennedy Center while attending a musical performance with his wife, and someone confronted him about Ukraine while out with his daughter. The Trump Administration has conducted a purge of the performing arts institution, although it doesn’t appear that they’re able to replace the Center’s audience.
“The thing at the Kennedy Center I thought was funny,” Vance said in the NBC News interview. “The thing by my house, I thought, was kind of annoying. I think you just kind of take the good with the bad. … I kind of just see it as, depending on your perspective, a feature or a bug of this new life.”
Photo courtesy of YouTube screengrab
