March 27 (Reuters) – Tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom
U.S. President Donald Trump has tapped to shrink the government,
said on Thursday he would finish most of the work to cut $1
trillion in federal spending when his tenure ends in as soon as
64 days.
Musk told Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” that he
was confident his Department of Government Efficiency could find
$1 trillion in savings, slimming current total federal spending
levels of about $7 trillion down to $6 trillion.
Musk, the world’s richest person, was designated by the
White House as a “special government employee,” which caps his
work at 130 days. That means his period leading the DOGE
operation could finish as soon as the end of May.
“I think we will accomplish most of the work required to
reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time
frame,” Musk said when asked by Baier about his tenure and how
quickly he expected to achieve his cost-cutting target.
“The government is not efficient, and there is a lot of
waste and fraud, so we feel confident that a 15% reduction can
be done without affecting any of the critical government
services,” Musk said.
DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $115 billion
as of March 24 through actions including workforce reductions,
asset sales and contract cancellations.
However, the savings total published on the DOGE website
is unverifiable and its calculations have been riddled with
errors and corrections. Budget experts say Musk cannot reach his
target without touching entitlement programs like Social
Security, which Trump has vowed not to cut.
The interview marked the first time that Musk and his
top lieutenants at DOGE met with media to explain their work.
Musk was joined by seven other DOGE executives, including Steve
Davis, the president of Musk’s tunneling enterprise the Boring
Company, and Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb.
“Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America
will sink. That’s why we’re doing it,” said Musk, who is also
CEO of electric car maker Tesla.
Musk’s role in slashing the federal workforce and
government agency budgets has drawn political backlash in recent
weeks, with Tesla cars and dealerships hit by a spate of
vandalism and demonstrations across the country.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Ross Colvin,
Jamie Freed and Leslie Adler)
