ANKARA (AA) / ISTANBUL 

US billionaire Elon Musk, who is spearheading US President Donald Trump’s controversial efforts to shrink the government, on Monday took aim at the media, claiming the government has "tens of millions" of unneeded media subscriptions.

Responding to an X post by Mark Pincus, the founder of US video game company Zynga, which claimed to see “$40m for nyt (New York Times) which implies 800k subscriptions without any discounts. Its not even clear what the $20m for AP (Associated Press) would have purchased since they are a free news service," Musk said: "My rough guess is that there are tens of millions of media & software subscriptions that are unnecessary in the government."

Musk has no experience in government service or administration but has made sweeping claims about government departments as being “worms” with no apple or “criminal organizations.”

Alleged payments

Pincus cited the website doge-tracker.com, which is believed to track the activities of Musk’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency, and shared a screenshot alleging:

• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) DEI contracts: $45.18 million

• USAID DEI (diversity equity inclusion) scholarships in Burma: $45 million

• Underutilized lease termination: $44.6 million

• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) DEI contract: $43.27 million

• New York Times (NYT) subscription cancellations: $40 million

• Department of Treasury DEI contracts: $35.89 million

• Work order for Digital Modernization Program management office support: $23 million

• Associated Press subscription cancellations: $20 million

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) DEI contracts: $20 million

• Education Department DEI training grant termination: $15 million

• Labor Department DEI contract: $9.68 million
  

There were no further details to allow the media to confirm these claimed figures.

Controversies surrounding USAID

Trump on Jan. 21 signed an executive order, immediately after taking office, to halt foreign aid programs.

The order said the US would suspend all payments from departments and agencies responsible for foreign development aid, initiating a 90-day review to assess whether these programs align with US foreign policy.

On Jan. 27, the US State Department announced that all foreign aid funded by the department and USAID had been suspended.

Musk, who is not an official government employee, then said that USAID employees had been placed on administrative leave due to conflicts with agency leadership.

Additionally, USAID’s social media accounts were shut down.

Later, both Trump and Musk stated that USAID should be shut down entirely, but their moves have faced court challenges.

Normally government agencies, established though congressional legislation, cannot simply be shut down by executive orders, but can only be eliminated by Congress passing more legislation towards that end.

Reacting to the alleged payments to Associated Press and The New York Times, Musk criticized the AP payment, calling it a "waste of taxpayers' money."

On the Times, he called the newspaper "government-funded media."