“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said Elon Musk learned Washington is “an incredibly nasty place” after completing his tenure as a White House advisor.
The tech CEO led operations for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an agency responsible for slashing federal spending and reducing the government’s workforce.
“I learned a lesson that Elon just learned. No one goes to Washington and returns unscathed. It is an incredibly nasty place,” O’Leary said Friday on Fox Business.
While working alongside President Trump, the Tesla CEO admitted he had “great difficulty” running multiple companies and reigning at the helm of DOGE.
Musk saw the electric vehicle manufacturer’s shares dip and faced scrutiny from the public for sunsetting several federal agencies.
“You need thick skin, and he just got that lesson doled out to him,” O’Leary said of Musk’s time in politics.
“The closer you get to the sun, the more your feathers get burned,” he added.
Musk recently said DOGE has been treated like the “whipping boy” for the Trump administration’s failures.
He told The Washington Post, “something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.”
In recent days, the tech giant has shared various posts on the social platform X, slamming Trump’s spending bill and other federal policies.
He appeared at a press event with Trump at the White House on Friday with a black eye.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
