Mark Cuban isn’t afraid to give his opinion on Elon Musk. Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images; Julia Beverly/Getty Images

Mark Cuban in a recent interview criticized Elon Musk’s empathy and leadership of DOGE.
Cuban said Musk’s cost-cutting measures were harming government services and the people who need them.
He recommended transparency and giving back if Musk wants to show he cares about US taxpayers.

The billionaire Mark Cuban has been a vocal critic of Elon Musk, and his latest comments were about Musk’s character.

During an appearance on the political podcast “Somebody’s Gotta Win with Tara Palmeri” Cuban called the Tesla CEO’s empathy into question. Musk is the de facto leader of the White House DOGE office, and he’s carrying out its mission of cutting government spending with layoffs and budget cuts at several agencies.

During a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk criticized the amount of what he called “civilizational suicidal empathy” in the US. Though Musk said he thought “you should care about other people,” he called it the “fundamental weakness of Western civilization.”

“He’s proven that that’s his weakness — not having empathy,” Cuban said.

He said that if Musk “truly cared” about taxpayers, he’d realize he doesn’t need government subsidies for Tesla and sell his satellite internet network, Starlink, at cost. He’d be transparent and not make “a penny” from his work at SpaceX, including rescuing two astronauts who were stranded in space, Cuban added.

Musk has referred to himself and DOGE as “tech support” for the federal government focused on updating outdated systems. Cuban told the podcast’s host, Palmeri, that Musk’s version of tech support wasn’t only affecting the people he accuses of fraud.

For example, he said, DOGE’s efforts to root out fraud and convert systems in the Social Security Administration have made it harder for some beneficiaries to get the services they need.

“You don’t just make it more difficult for them,” he added. “You implement things that allow them to access the system. That’s just normal in any system conversion.”

It’s “tech 101,” the “Shark Tank” star said, adding that Musk would be fired immediately in tech support for dismantling existing systems before rolling out replacements.

Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Last week, Cuban called DOGE out on Bluesky in a post suggesting it had “already forgotten” its mandated productivity emails that federal workers were told they had to submit in order to keep their jobs.