Seated on the head of a big convention desk contained in the West Wing’s Roosevelt Room on Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk, wearing his signature T-shirt and blazer, ducked the query of whether or not his Division of Authorities Effectivity would meet his pledge of slashing $1 trillion from the federal funds.
“I feel it’s doable to try this, nevertheless it’s a protracted highway to go, and, you realize, it’s actually troublesome,” he stated of the trillion-dollar aim. “It’s kind of, how a lot ache is, you realize, are the cupboard and is Congress keen to take? As a result of it may be finished, nevertheless it requires coping with loads of complaints.”
His caginess contrasted together with his chest-thumping confidence only a few months in the past about what he would accomplish in authorities. Standing onstage at a Trump rally at Madison Sq. Backyard in October, Mr. Musk advised a roaring crowd that he might reduce “at least two trillion” in federal spending. He later halved that determine.
Now, Mr. Musk, who by no means beforehand served in authorities, has been pressured to revise his expectations even additional, although he nonetheless insists his targets stay technically doable. His 101 days in authorities have been stormy, and his sequence of interviews this week — together with Wednesday’s session with reporters from main newspapers and tv networks — gave the impression to be an effort to wrest again management of the messaging.
He has clashed with cupboard secretaries and fielded complaints from lawmakers whose constituents’ providers and jobs have been threatened by cuts from his Division of Authorities Effectivity. He has argued with the president over tariffs and confronted protests from federal staff, together with over his choice to dismantle total companies, together with the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement and the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau.
He has additionally run right into a math downside that funds consultants from each events warned about: There isn’t any option to slash a trillion {dollars} with out tackling probably the most politically delicate components of the funds, social security web packages and army spending.
The billionaire says he’s happy with the cuts DOGE has made. He says he plans to return to spending most of his time engaged on his corporations, which embody Tesla, X and SpaceX, however expects to dedicate round two days per week to authorities work, visiting Washington each different week.
DOGE was initially meant to function solely till July 4, 2026, however Mr. Musk stated he might think about the trouble working by way of your entire 4 years of the Trump administration. He stated it will be as much as President Trump to determine how lengthy he needed him to maintain engaged on the initiative. Mr. Musk is allowed to serve simply 130 days as a “particular authorities worker,” but when he reduces his hours to half time, he might lengthen by months his time working for the Trump administration.
Mr. Musk insisted that DOGE would do effectively in his absence. However he was evasive, resorting to jokes, when requested who would fill his place.
“DOGE is a lifestyle. Like Buddhism,” Mr. Musk stated.
Pressed once more, he stated: “Is Buddha wanted for Buddhism?”
In Mr. Musk’s telling, he has given DOGE, which he in comparison with a “start-up,” the intensive burst of his consideration it required to get it off the bottom. Mr. Musk claims to have saved taxpayers $160 billion thus far.
However DOGE’s on-line “wall of receipts” doesn’t account for 64 p.c of that complete. The group has solely itemized $58 billion of its financial savings by linking them to particular canceled contracts, grants and leases. The opposite $102 billion shouldn’t be defined. And even the $58 billion in financial savings that DOGE has itemized is considerably inflated, by together with outright errors and guesses in regards to the future.
Mr. Musk stated that it was nonetheless “completely” doable to search out $1 trillion in financial savings to confront the issue of the ballooning nationwide debt, however that it remained to be seen whether or not there was “ample political will in Congress and elsewhere to truly try this.”
“And we could not succeed,” he stated.
Mr. Trump has made clear to Mr. Musk that a few of the most sizable parts of the federal authorities are off limits for severe reform. The president has dominated out making any adjustments to Social Safety and Medicare, which account for greater than a 3rd of federal spending. And Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated he needs the Pentagon funds to be elevated to $1 trillion.
On the White Home on Wednesday, Mr. Musk reiterated that there have been billions extra to be saved from chopping waste and that his crew had discovered clear-cut proof of fraud.
Reflecting on his time in Washington, Mr. Musk shared an uncommon quantity of element about his life with Mr. Trump.
“I suppose we’re good mates, and we’ll be on Air Power One or Marine One, and he’s like, ‘Hey do you need to keep over?’ And I’m like, ‘Positive,’” Mr. Musk stated.
Mr. Musk ended up spending the night time within the Lincoln Bed room on a number of events.
Throughout a type of sleepovers, Mr. Musk stated, Mr. Trump referred to as him late at night time to inform him to verify to get some ice cream from the kitchen. The billionaire stated he helped himself to an entire container of caramel Häagen-Dazs.
“I used to be like, these items’s wonderful,” he stated.
David A. Fahrenthold contributed reporting.
Could 1, 2025
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An earlier model of this text misstated, in a single occasion, the financial savings that DOGE has itemized. It’s $58 billion, not $58 million.
