Diyar Guldogan
February 26, 2025•Update: February 27, 2025
WASHINGTON
Elon Musk said on Wednesday if the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) does not cut spending, America will go "bankrupt."
"So, we are actually tech support. It's ironic, but it's true," Musk, who heads DOGE, said at the first Cabinet meeting after President Donald Trump made opening remarks.
Wearing a black MAGA hat and a black T-shirt with the phrase "Tech Support," on it, Musk was behind the table where Cabinet officials sat.
"The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits.
"Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department’s spending. We spent a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like over a trillion dollars on interest. If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt," Musk said.
Musk said he has received "a lot of flak” and death threats for his work.
"But if we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt, that’s why it has to be done. And I’m confident at this point ... that we can actually find a trillion dollars in savings. That would be roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget," Musk said.
He added that DOGE is "really a support function" for the president, agencies and departments to help achieve the savings, and to find 15% in reduction in "fraud and waste."
Musk said DOGE will make mistakes.
"We won't be perfect, but when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly was Ebola prevention.
"I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention immediately, and there was no interruption," he said.
