Elon Musk gave an exclusive interview Fox News recently where he shared several things about his role in the government as well as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for the first time ever. This also included introducing almost the full DOGE team. Elon Musk presented his seven DOGE team members- Aram Moghaddassi, Steve Davis, Brad Smith, Anthony Armstrong, Joe Gebbia, Tom Krause, and Tyler Hassen. The DOGE office has for weeks been the dominant story of the US President Donald Trump‘s first 100 days of his second term. Working alongside the DOGE office, the Trump administration has implemented some strict measures including firings, shutting down Education department and USAID programmes and more. The DOGE team spoke at length about their work to improve America’s balance sheets and how they were reaching closer to their goal, which would halve the annual federal deficit.
Elon Musk’s DOGE term ending on …
One of the biggest takeaway of the interview was that Elon Musk for the first time shared that he plans to slash $1 trillion in government spending — and the time limit he is aiming for the same is by the end of May. This means that DOGE term may end in May. Elon Musk said that he believes that DOGE can find that level of cost savings within 130 days from the start of Trump’s term, which began on January 20. “I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” Musk said when asked by Baier about his tenure and how quickly he expected to achieve his cost-cutting target. Incidentally, Musk is a special government employee, a classification for temporary federal workers who are only supposed to work 130 days out of the year in their roles.
“The government is not efficient, and there is a lot of waste and fraud, so we feel confident that a 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services,” Musk said. “I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” Musk said.
Elon Musk’s Big Saving target for the US government
Elon Musk’s ambitious target to reduce US government spending by 15%, equivalent to approximately $1 trillion from the $6.75 trillion spent in fiscal year 2024 may necessitate cutting more than half of the $1.8 trillion allocated to non-defense discretionary programs in 2024. Musk asserts that he can achieve these savings “without affecting any of the critical government services.”
The statement came shortly after President Trump expressed confidence that he would be “satisfied” with the DOGE’s proposed reductions within the next one to two months. Trump has acknowledged the political challenges of such extensive cuts, noting that DOGE’s reforms are not “necessarily a very popular thing to do.”
A significant portion of federal spending is tied to mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security, which offer limited flexibility for reductions. Musk has claimed, without providing substantiation, that these programs suffer from widespread fraud and waste. To address this, DOGE has assigned at least 10 staff members to the Social Security Administration to pinpoint inefficiencies. However, evidence contradicts assertions of rampant fraud: between 2015 and 2022, the Social Security Administration reported approximately $72 billion in improper payments—less than 1% of total benefits disbursed—according to a 2023 inspector general report.
