Howard Lutnick says Elon Musk vowed onstage that DOGE would cut $2 trillion in spending when he was supposed to say $1 trillion

• Howard Lutnick was standing beside Elon Musk in October when Musk said DOGE could save $2 trillion.
• Lutnick told the "All-In Podcast" that Musk was supposed to say he could save $1 trillion.
• Musk said in January that cutting $2 trillion would be the "best-case outcome" for DOGE.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Elon Musk's pledge in October to cut $2 trillion from federal spending came from a flub of a scripted moment between the pair.

Speaking on an episode of the "All-In Podcast," which aired Thursday, Lutnick said the two had planned to announce at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden that they would collectively save and earn $2 trillion for the US.

"When I say to him: 'How much are you going to cut?' The deal was he's going to cut $1 trillion. And then he's supposed to say: 'And how much are you going to earn?' And I'm supposed to say $1 trillion," Lutnick said on the podcast.

But Lutnick said Musk didn't execute their script as planned.

"Because we're in front of 22,000 people, and the place is erupting," Lutnick said. "He says: '$2 trillion!' And I'm like, I think I said: 'All righty then.' Or something like that. I mean, what was I supposed to say?" Lutnick continued.

At the rally, Lutnick had asked Musk how much he thought he could "rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget."

"I think we can do at least do $2 trillion," Musk replied.

Their onstage moment became the basis for doubts among some federal budget experts that Musk could truly cut $2 trillion, or nearly a third of the $6.75 trillion spent by the US in the 2024 fiscal year.

In January, Musk told political strategist Mark Penn that saving $2 trillion would be the "best-case outcome" and that his team had a "good shot" at cutting $1 trillion instead.

"If we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome," Musk said in January.

In November, Musk had backed Lutnick to be President Donald Trump's treasury secretary pick.

Musk wrote in an X post then that as treasury secretary, Lutnick "will actually enact change" as opposed to Trump's eventual choice, Scott Bessent. Bessent was the "business-as-usual" option, Musk added.

On Wednesday, Lutnick said in an interview on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" that viewers should buy stock from Musk's EV company, Tesla.

"I think if you want to learn something on this show tonight, buy Tesla. It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again," Lutnick said.

Before becoming commerce secretary, Lutnick was the chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. The brokerage and investment bank owns Tesla shares, per an SEC filing in February.

Cantor Fitzgerald said in a statement last month, following Lutnick's confirmation as commerce secretary, that he has agreed to divest his business interests in the bank.

Musk and the Commerce Department did not respond to requests from Business Insider.