Kevin O’Leary, the Shark Tank investor, has urged President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk to act quickly and make deeper cuts to the federal workforce and government agencies before the midterm elections.
During a panel with CNN’s Abby Phillip, O’Leary said Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should use the next 24 months to make sweeping changes before Republicans could lose their control in Congress after the elections.
“Cut everything,” O’Leary said. “Keep slashing, keep hacking, while you have a 24-month mandate before the midterms. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, more, more cutting. Believe me, it’s going to work out just great. Everybody should be happy about this.”
When asked if that should include cutting workers handling nuclear codes, O’Leary was clear: “Cut everything.”
“If you don’t see what they’re doing, and they can’t show you that they’re adding value, you whack,” he continued.
O’Leary stressed that DOGE needs to go even further with cuts, pointing to a strategy used in private equity to make more cuts in struggling organizations to uncover excess.
“I think the issue is they’re not whacking enough,” O’Leary said. “There’s this concept in private equity, when you get a bankrupt company and you go in there, you cut 20 percent more than your initial read, and then you find, like a pool of mercury, the organization gels back together again.”
“Always cut deeper, harder when there’s fat and waste,” he added.
This week, DOGE reported finding $55 billion in savings. In addition, Trump signed an executive order calling for “large-scale reductions” in federal agencies and new hiring plans.
O’Leary also discussed the FAA, one of the agencies facing major cuts. He suggested that the real issue isn’t the people, but the outdated technology, which needs to be upgraded to improve safety.
“All of these agencies are like big fat chickens dripping over barbecues of fat. This is the best barbecue I’ve ever seen. But I don’t think it’s happening fast enough,” O’Leary said. “They’re not cutting enough.”
One panelist pointed out that Musk had to rehire some of the employees he let go after realizing they were crucial to the agency’s work. O’Leary shrugged it off.
“OK, he gets it wrong once in a while. Big deal. So what? That’s 10 percent of the time,” he said.
Watch the segment below from CNN.
