‘You’re killing baby pandas’: Musk says fraudsters use sympathy to block govt spending cuts

Elon Musk has offered a blunt account of why trimming government waste and fraud is far harder than it appears on paper, arguing that even the most obvious cases trigger emotional backlash that can stall reform. 

Speaking with Daily Caller about his experience engaging with government systems, Musk said he was struck by how difficult it is to stop wasteful or fraudulent spending, even when the evidence is clear. 

“What I discovered is it’s extremely difficult even to cut very obvious waste and fraud from the government — because the government has to operate on who’s complaining,” Musk said. 

According to him, attempts to halt fraudulent payments often provoke immediate pushback from those affected — not through admissions of wrongdoing, but through emotionally charged narratives designed to preserve the flow of funds. 

“If you cut off payments to fraudsters, they immediately come up with the most sympathetic sounding reasons to continue the payment,” Musk said. “They don’t say, ‘Please keep the fraud going.’ They’re like, ‘You’re killing baby pandas!’” 

Musk added that such claims are frequently fabricated but strategically effective. “Meanwhile, there’s no baby pandas who are dying. They’re just making it up,” he said, arguing that false but emotionally compelling stories can pressure governments into maintaining flawed programmes. 

'Govt decisions driven by complaints' 

Musk’s comments highlight what he sees as a structural weakness in public administration — decision-making driven by the loudest or most sympathetic complaints rather than data, efficiency or outcomes. 

He suggested that this dynamic creates a system where fraud and waste are difficult to eliminate because stopping them generates visible pain, protests or public outrage, while the benefits of reform remain abstract or invisible. 

“The fraudsters are capable of coming up with extremely compelling, heart-wrenching stories that are false — but nonetheless sound sympathetic,” Musk said. “That’s what happened.” 

Musk’s attempt to rethink govt efficiency 

Musk’s remarks come in the context of his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative — a proposed effort aimed at applying private-sector principles to reduce wasteful public spending, streamline bureaucracy and improve accountability. DOGE was launched in January 2025 as a federal cost-cutting initiative aimed at reducing waste, cancelling redundant contracts and modernising government operations using private-sector efficiency models. 

DOGE moved quickly across multiple agencies, targeting contract cancellations, workforce reductions and IT upgrades. It focused on trimming discretionary spending, eliminating overlapping programmes and using technology — including experimental AI tools — to flag inefficiencies. The approach was aggressive and highly centralised, reflecting Musk’s belief that government could be run more like a lean enterprise. 

DOGE claimed savings ranging from roughly $130 billion to over $200 billion, but those figures were widely disputed. Critics and watchdogs argued that many “savings” reflected projected contract ceilings rather than actual spending cuts, and warned that the initiative caused operational disruptions, productivity losses and legal challenges. Musk later acknowledged the effort was only “somewhat successful.” 

By early 2026, DOGE had been wound down as a standalone entity, with its remaining functions absorbed into existing government departments. Court rulings, administrative resistance and political pushback played a role in curtailing its mandate.