Tesla CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that his target of cutting $2 trillion in government spending would likely be difficult to complete, with half that number looking like a more realistic option.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the best case scenario would be to make $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that he is

Elon Musk initially pledged to cut some $2 trillion from the federal budget, alongside his DOGE partner, politician Vivek Ramaswamy.

Elon Musk, who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to oversee a government cost-cutting effort, acknowledged that his declared goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the $6.8 trillion federal budget would be a long shot.

Elon Musk told the political strategist Mark Penn that if DOGE tried to cut $2 trillion, it'd have a "good shot" of ending up at $1 trillion.

Elon Musk walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”

The Tesla CEO floats other numbers for how much the Department of Government Efficiency can cut from the Federal deficit.