“Look, the principles of DOGE were very popular. I think if you looked at the polling, Elon was not,” Bessent told CNN’s State of the Union.

Neither entity appeared to be truly popular when polled. A March NBC News poll found 39% of respondents approved of Musk, with 41% approving of DOGE.

Bessent also noted the boards of directors at Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX, among others, may prefer that Musk stay out of politics. 

“I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities,” Bessent said.

The treasury secretary and Musk have feuded in the past, with some of their tussles reportedly turning physical and devolving into screaming matches. 

Musk and President Donald Trump had a public falling out last month as Musk was exiting his role in the White House. Musk has since become a vocal critic of Trump’s recently signed legislative priority, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

ELON MUSK’S ‘AMERICA PARTY’ PROPOSAL — COULD IT WORK?

This week, Musk’s team filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission for the America Party.

“The way we’re going to crack the uniparty system is by using a variant of how Epaminondas shattered the myth of Spartan invincibility at Leuctra: Extremely concentrated force at a precise location on the battlefield,” Musk said.