Kevin O’Leary, investor and star of TV’s Shark Tank, says DOGE has not done nearly enough budget cutting in Washington and is urging Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE to trim even more.
O’Leary appeared as a panelist on CNN on Monday, and when the topic turned to the cost cutting in which Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been engaged, O’Leary said that, so far, it has not gone far enough.
“I think the issue is they’re not whacking enough,” the investor exclaimed. “In private equity, when you’ve got a bankrupt company and you go in there, you cut 20 percent more than your initial read… Always cut deeper, harder when there’s fat and waste.”
O’Leary later compared the federal budget to a “big fat chicken.”
“These agencies are like big fat chickens dripping over barbecues of fat. This is the best barbecue I’ve ever seen,” he insisted. “But I don’t think it’s happening fast enough. They’re not cutting enough. Keep slashing, keep packing.”
O’Leary simply left no doubt that he wants to see more pruning while Trump has the power to do it. He wants Trump to “cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut,” he said. And he wants the trimming to continue while Trump has his “24-month mandate” before things might change in the 2026 midterm elections.
CNN host Sara Sidner then asked O’Leary: “Even the people with the nuclear codes? Cut them too?” The entrepreneur replied, “Cut everything! Because if you don’t see what they’re doing and they can’t show you if they’re adding value, you’re whacked.”
Right now, polls seem to show that the majority of voters support Trump’s efforts to slash government spending, in part by eliminating select federal departments and workers deemed nonessential or detrimental to American progress. A recent poll of likely voters, for instance, found that a strong majority approves of Musk’s efforts to cut government spending.
But presidents commonly lose a step during their first midterm elections, and the opposing party often surges to take control of one or both houses of Congress. In such a scenario, President Trump could, theoretically, be left without a solid majority to get his agenda passed.
With that in mind, O’Leary says that the cutting is all good and Trump really has nothing to worry about in the meantime.
“Believe me, it’s going to work out just great,” he said.
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