What did Elon Musk get from DOGE – and what’s next?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk may have resigned from the Department of Government Efficiency, but few believe he’s stepping away from power. In under a year, DOGE brought Silicon Valley-style disruption to Washington, consolidating federal data and dismantling oversight. Now, Musk is expected to channel what he gained into a private AI venture – with public systems still in reach.
In this episode:
- Matt Binder (@mattbinder), Writer of Disruptionist
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Tamara Khandaker, Sonia Bhagat, and Chloe K. Li with Sarí el-Khalili, Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Kisaa Zehra, Mariana Navarrete, and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Sarí el-Khalili, Tamara Khandaker, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Ashish Malhotra, Haleema Shah, Khaled Soltan, Amy Walters, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Remas Alhawari, Kingwell Ma, Mariana Navarrete, and Kisaa Zehra. Our guest host is Kevin Hirten. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Aya Elmileik is lead of audience engagement.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Trump's first buddy leaves the White House. |
| 0:15.9 | Elon Musk, the billionaire turned budget cutter, is out. |
| 0:20.5 | Elon Musk leaves Washington behind with a trail of lawsuits, mass layoffs, and gutted agencies. |
| 0:26.8 | But what does he walk away with? |
| 0:30.8 | I'm Natasha D'Oro, and this is the take. |
| 0:40.2 | Hi, my name is Matt Binder. |
| 0:42.2 | I am a tech reporter out of New York City. |
| 0:45.5 | So, Matt, let's start with this resignation. |
| 0:48.8 | A lot of people were predicting that there was going to be some kind of dramatic blowout between |
| 0:53.8 | Elon Musk and Donald Trump. |
| 0:56.2 | But he just recently announced that he's going to be stepping away from his government position. |
| 1:02.6 | And it feels like now he's sort of more slinking away. |
| 1:08.9 | I mean, we know that Musk's role was always intended to be temporary, right? |
| 1:14.5 | I mean, he had hinted earlier that he might step down soon. |
| 1:18.4 | But then his resignation came right after Trump announced his so-called big, beautiful bill. |
| 1:25.6 | Elon Musk has criticized the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. |
| 1:30.4 | The legislation includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement. |
| 1:34.9 | Musk described it as a massive spending bill that increases the federal deficit and undermines |
| 1:39.5 | the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, known as Doge. |
| 1:43.8 | As we know, he was brought in to run the so-called department, Doge, Department of Government Efficiency, which wasn't really a department. |
| 1:53.0 | And he had this big, bold mandate to cut the fat from the government. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Al Jazeera, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Al Jazeera and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.