Musk to lead pentagon audit as Trump targets federal cuts
Billionaire Elon Musk stated during a visit to the White House that if the US do not address the two trillion dollar budget deficit, the country will face bankruptcy. Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday mandating a significant reduction in the number of federal administration jobs.
- We've got a $2 trillion deficit, and if we don't do something about this deficit, the country is going bankrupt. The country is going bankrupt. If we don’t take action, the dollar’s going to be worth nothing, said Musk, speaking in the Oval Office alongside his son X and the president.
Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday requiring all federal agencies to cooperate with Musk's DOGE team to reduce costs. Although the document's text has not yet been released, according to the Semafor portal, the decree instructs state institutions, in collaboration with DOGE, to present plans for "large-scale" employee reductions and to limit hiring only to essential positions.
In his first address at the White House, Musk - whose companies hold multi-billion-pound contracts with government agencies, mostly the Pentagon - evaded journalists' questions about the controversial actions of his DOGE team, including potential conflicts of interest. He claimed that because DOGE shares its actions on its website, it is fully transparent.
All of our actions are fully public ... You can see, am I doing something that benefits one of my companies or not, said the billionaire.
He also conceded that "some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected," responding to a query regarding his inaccurate claim of spending $50 (£40) million "for condoms to Hamas" by the USAID agency (in reality, the amount was lower, related to Gaza Province in Mozambique, and was aimed at fighting AIDS).
"Bureaucrats enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers"
He professed that his actions are intended to "defend democracy" because, to date, America has been a bureaucracy, not a democracy. Both Musk and Trump stressed that the "audits" he conducts of the expenditures of individual agencies will yield enormous savings, possibly up to a trillion dollars. Musk also added that bureaucrats enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers.
Musk and Trump also criticised judges who temporarily halted a series of DOGE initiatives. Trump remarked that "maybe we have to look at the judges," and Musk suggested that their actions are influenced by "certain views." However, the president announced he would adhere to the judges' decisions, although he stated they provide more time for "fraudsters" to hide the evidence.
