Musk teams up with Trump for federal budget shake-up
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 order on Tuesday mandating a drastic reduction in the number of positions in the federal administration.
- 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, standing in the Oval Office with his son, X, beside the president.
Trump signed an order on Tuesday mandating all federal agencies to cooperate with Musk's DOGE team to reduce costs. Although the document's text has not yet been published, according to the portal Semafor, the decree requires state institutions, together with DOGE, to present plans for "large-scale" staff reductions and limit hiring to essential positions only.
In his first appearance at the White House, Musk—whose companies have multi-billion dollar contracts with government agencies, primarily the Pentagon—dismissed journalists' questions about the controversial actions of his DOGE team, including potential conflicts of interest. He stated that since DOGE reports its actions on its website, it ensures full transparency.
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.
At the same time, he admitted that "some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected," responding to a question about the falsely promoted example of spending $50 million "on condoms for Hamas in Gaza" by the USAID agency. In reality, the amount was lower and related to the Gaza Province in Mozambique, dedicated to fighting AIDS.
"Bureaucrats enrich themselves at taxpayers' expense"
He claimed that his actions aim to "defend democracy," because so far, America has been a bureaucracy, not a democracy. Both Musk and Trump emphasized that the "audits" of various agency expenditures led by him would yield huge savings, potentially up to a trillion dollars. Musk also added that bureaucrats enrich themselves at the taxpayers' expense.
Musk and Trump also criticized judges who temporarily halted several DOGE initiatives. Trump stated that "maybe we have to look at the judges," while Musk suggested that their actions are dictated by their "certain views." The president, however, announced that he would comply with judicial decisions, although he stated that they give more time for "fraudsters" to hide the evidence.
