Elon Musk Likens Failed DOGE to 'Save the Baby Pandas NGO' Before Its Shutdown

The failure of Elon Musk's much-hyped Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) culminated not with an apology, but with a bizarre defence involving baby pandas. The agency, which promised to deliver trillions in savings, was dissolved eight months ahead of schedule, marking a deeply humiliating end to a short and controversial tenure.

Musk, who briefly headed the initiative, has since dismissed the failure with a strange analogy, suggesting that waste and fraud are simply disguised by sympathetic causes. His comments came just before the formal winding down of the department was reported.

Elon Musk's Bizarre 'Save the Baby Pandas' Analogy

During an interview on the WTF Is podcast with entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath, Musk provided a highly unusual explanation for the difficulty of cutting federal spending. He was defending DOGE's controversial cuts, denying that the agency targeted essential payments, particularly those destined for needy people in Africa. He contended that those perpetrating fraud invariably use causes that evoke maximum public sympathy to obscure their illicit activities.

'Fraudsters necessarily will come up with a very sympathetic argument. They're not going to say, 'Give us the money for fraud,' Musk explained. He then offered his unusual analogy, stating, 'It's going to be like the Save the Baby Pandas NGO, which is like, who doesn't want to save the baby pandas? They're adorable.'

Musk's main contention was that even the most appealing causes can serve as a front for corruption and the misuse of taxpayer money.

'But then it turns out no pandas are being saved in this thing, it's just corruption, essentially,' he continued. He dramatically demonstrated the lack of accountability by posing a rhetorical question to the supposed fraudsters, saying, 'And you're like, 'Well, can you send us a picture of the panda?' They're like, 'No.' OK. Well, how do we know it's going to the pandas?

Mission Goals Slashed as DOGE Dissolves

The bizarre justification for the perceived failure of DOGE follows a pattern of overpromise and significant under-delivery by the controversial department. The department's original mandate was to continue working until the middle of 2026, but its dissolution was reported just weeks after Musk's interview was recorded, and less than a year of chaotic operations.

The initial goal for DOGE was staggering, with Musk suggesting the department could save American taxpayers $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) in its first year alone. This figure was quickly reduced to $1 trillion (£800 billion), and then, at a Cabinet meeting in April, expectations were once again lowered to a mere $150 billion (£125 billion) in savings over the next fiscal year.

While the DOGE website, known as the 'Wall of Receipts,' claimed to have saved approximately $214 billion (£177 billion), this figure has been widely contested by external analysts. Specifically, a report found that DOGE had relied on 'faulty math,' incorrectly claiming tens of billions of dollars in savings from cancelled federal contracts.

What Was DOGE?

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was a controversial initiative established by executive order during the second Trump administration, primarily tasked with modernising federal technology, maximising productivity, and cutting regulations and spending across the government.

It was created by reorganising and renaming the existing United States Digital Service (USDS) and was widely associated with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who briefly served in a leadership role. DOGE's official goal was to identify and eliminate 'waste, fraud, and abuse,' with initial claims of saving trillions of dollars, but it faced widespread criticism for its lack of transparency, controversial mass layoffs, and reports of unverified savings before being quietly disbanded in late 2025.

Musk left his role as special advisor to DOGE in late May, just before his high-profile public falling-out with Donald Trump escalated. Despite the drama and the dissolution, Mr Musk attempted to downplay his involvement as an 'interesting side quest,' where he 'just got to see a lot of the inner workings of the government, and there's been quite a few efficiencies.'