WASHINGTON — Elon Musk said Thursday that slashing a trillion in federal spending is “quite achievable” without impacting the core services provided to Americans.
The Department of Government Efficiency leader expressed confidence in meeting the goal in an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier.
“Our goal is to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars. So from a nominal deficit of $2 trillion to try cut def seven half to $1 trillion — or looked at in total federal spending, to drop the federal spending from $7 trillion to $6 trillion,” Musk told Baier in a snippet of the interview that will air in full at 6 p.m.
“At a high level, you should think of this as we want to reduce the spending — by eliminating waste — to reduce the spending by 15%, which seems really quite achievable,” the world’s richest man said, joined by a handful of members of his cost-cutting initiative.
“The government is not efficient, and there’s a lot of waste and fraud, so we feel confident that 15% reduction can can be done without affecting any of the critical government services.”
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, has blazed through federal agencies since late January, overseeing the mass-firing of staffers and dramatically reducing agency spending, including all-but shuttering USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
It’s unclear precisely how much the DOGE-led initiative has trimmed so far — as major looming targets, including the Pentagon, remain largely untouched.
Baier said that the interview touched on “several billionaires” aiding the DOGE campaign.
“The co-founder of Airbnb [Joe Gebbia], with multi-billion dollars, is essentially volunteering to redo the retirement system that is done by paper,” the anchor said in a promotional Fox News appearance ahead of the full interview.
“They are essentially doing a Silicon Valley tech redo of computer systems that have been the same way for decades. And what they’re finding and what you’ll hear tonight will kind of blow your mind about some of the things, the specifics that they’re finding.”
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