Elon Musk said during an interview this week that his stated goal of assisting the Trump administration in eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government would be nearly completed by June.
Musk made the remarks during a wide-ranging discussion with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in which he and other top officials from the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) initiative offered a behind-the-scenes look at their efforts to prevent the United States from going bankrupt.
Musk said their goal was to reduce the federal deficit by half, meaning cutting it by a trillion dollars.
“We want to reduce the spending by eliminating waste and fraud, reduce the spending by 15%, which seems really quite achievable,” he said. “The government is not efficient, and there’s a lot of waste and fraud. So we feel confident that 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services.”
Baier noted that Musk was technically a “special government employee” and was supposed to be in the government for only 130 days.
“Are you going to continue past that?” Baier asked. “Or do you think that’s what you’re going to do?”
Musk responded: “I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame.”
“So in that time frame, 130 days?” Baier asked.
“Yes,” Musk responded.
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