Washington DC - Vice President JD Vance has admitted that mistakes have been made since Elon Musk took control of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Vance acknowledged Musk had fired many federal employees who were crucial to their departments and whose loss will cause serious problems in the civil service's ability to complete its responsibilities.

"Elon himself has said that sometimes you do something, you make a mistake, and then you undo the mistake. I’m accepting of mistakes," Vance told NBC News in an interview Friday.

"I’m also very aware of the fact that there are a lot of good people who work in the government – a lot of people who are doing a very good job," Vance said.

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"And we want to try to preserve as much of what works in government as possible, while eliminating what doesn’t work," the VP added, noting that Musk is going to "have to quickly correct those mistakes."

Musk has carried out the mass firings with seeming glee, frequently boasting about the cuts and trolling opponents on social media.

The tech billionaire has railed against government expenditure and so-called "corruption" in the civil service – all while accepting grants for SpaceX and a massive $400 million Tesla deal with the State Department. In total, Musk's companies are believed to have received $18 billion in taxpayer money since 2015.

"It is a problem when people are living off the generosity of the American taxpayer," Vance admitted, though he was referring to civil servants, not Musk.

"That doesn’t distract or detract from the fact that you do have a lot of great civil servants who are doing important work."