Elon Musk is backing away from his campaign trail commitment to trim $2 trillion in government spending.

While stumping for Donald Trump days before November’s presidential election, the billionaire GOP donor told cheering fans he would help the new administration cut “at least” that amount from the federal budget. The idea of trimming nearly 30% in spending was largely viewed as ambitious to say the least.

Speaking on his social media platform X Wednesday, the 53-year-old entrepreneur chuckled before admitting that pledge probably wasn’t realistic.

“If you try for two trillion you have a good shot at getting one,” he claimed during a conversation with marketing CEO Mark Penn.

Musk said a $2 trillion cut would be a best case scenario, but reaching half that number would constitute “an epic outcome.”

According to the Tesla and, X and SpaceX owner, trimming even $1 billion in spending would end inflation.

Trump tapped Musk and billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy to launch a Department of Government Efficiency (DoGE) to reduce government waste over the next four years. The pair wrote in a November Wall Street Journal article they planned to cut $500 billion per year from the budget by focusing on “regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.”

Two thirds of the $6.75 trillion federal budget is designated for debt interest, defense, Social Security, Medicare and veterans needs. There may not be political will among members of Congress to slash those programs. That Musk needing to take $2 trillion out of the $2.35 trillion remaining, which includes spending for things like natural disaster relief and infrastructure.

The Washington Post notes that discretionary spending totaled $1.6 trillion in the 2024. Even eliminating that completely — which could negatively impact law enforcement, education and consumer protection — would fall short of a $2 trillion cut.

And the nonprofit research foundation Brookings Institute warns that laying off federal employees like air traffic control workers and border guards could come at a cost to national safety.

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