Doge aims to slash $1.3 trillion in US government spending by end of May, says Musk
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So far, the accounting from Mr Elon Musk’s Doge team has shown it is still far from the $1.3 trillion mark.
PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON – Mr Elon Musk, the billionaire running US President Donald Trump’s federal cost cutting effort, said he plans to slash US$1 trillion (S$1.3 trillion) in government spending by the end of May.
Mr Musk, in an interview on March 27 with Fox News’ Bret Baier, said he believes that his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) can find that level of cost savings within 130 days of the start of Mr Trump’s term, which began on Jan 20.
That presents an ambitious goal that would require slashing more than half of the US$1.8 trillion the US spent on non-defence discretionary programmes in 2024.
“I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,” Mr Musk said.
He 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.
He says he wants to cut 15 per cent of the government’s annual spending – which amounted to US$6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024. That is a reduction of about US$1 trillion.
Mr Musk says he is confident he can slash that amount “without affecting any of the critical government services”.
The interview came days after Mr Trump said that he expected to be “satisfied” with Doge’s cuts in the coming month or two. The US President has also said Doge’s overhauls are not “necessarily a very popular thing to do”, an acknowledgment of the political risk associated with Mr Musk’s plans for wide-ranging cuts.
Much of the federal government’s spending is on mandatory programmes, such as Medicare and Social Security, where there is little leeway to make cuts. Mr Musk has said, without citing evidence, that those programmes are overrun with fraud and waste.
Doge has deployed at least 10 staffers to the Social Security Administration to identify waste. But the data does not support claims of widespread fraud: from 2015 until 2022, Social Security estimated that it made almost US$72 billion in improper payments – less than 1 per cent of benefits paid, according to an inspector-general report in 2024.
Doge team
The Fox interview marked the first time that many of the key people working with Doge have spoken publicly about their work. Mr Steve Davis, a long-time Musk aide, was identified by Mr Baier as the Doge chief operating officer. Mr Joe Gebbia, the billionaire who co-founded Airbnb and is on Tesla’s board of directors, also joined the interview.
So far, the accounting from Mr Musk’s own team has shown they are still far from the US$1 trillion mark.
The Doge website, which has been plagued with errors and overstatements
Mr Musk’s Doge has also spearheaded a wave of federal government layoffs that agencies have begun implementing in recent weeks.
He sought to downplay the job cuts, saying that “almost no one’s gotten fired”.
Agencies in recent weeks have announced a spate of workforce reductions.
On March 27, the US Department of Health and Human Services said it would cut 10,000 jobs. Earlier in March, the US Education Department said it was cutting half of its employees and the US Small Business Administration is eliminating 43 per cent of its workforce. The US Department of Veterans Affairs said it would terminate 80,000 workers and the US Treasury Department said in a court filing that large-scale cuts are planned.
Doge has faced a series of legal setbacks as judges have halted some of their cuts. Mr Musk’s team has also been blocked from accessing some systems and databases, including at the Social Security Administration. BLOOMBERG
