Musk says his Department of Government Efficiency is serving ‘a support role’ in Trump’s administration. The world’s wealthiest man claimed that the U.S. government will go bankrupt if he is not permitted to continue working to cut the federal workforce and run rampant through sensitive data as part of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency effort as he played the part of a cabinet member during Donald Trump’s first cabinet meeting since returning to office.
Elon Musk, wearing a back “tech support” t-shirt under a sport jacket and his customary black “Make America Great Again” hat, stood in the White House Cabinet Room on Wednesday at Trump’s request after the president asked him to “say a few words” about the work he is doing for the administration.
Musk said in response that he calls himself “humble tech support” and said that description is a “literal” one because his DOGE group is working to “help fix the government’s computer systems.”. “Many systems are extremely old. They don't communicate. They're a lot of mistakes in the systems. The software doesn't work, so we are actually tech support,” he continued before adding that his “overall goal” with DOGE is to cut the federal deficit — a responsibility assigned to Congress by the U.S. Constitution — because the U.S. currently spends more on debt servicing than on defense.
“We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like, over a trillion dollars on interest. If this continues, the country will go become de facto bankrupt. It's not an optional thing. It is an essential thing,” said the billionaire, who added for good measure that he is “taking a lot of flack and getting a lot of death threats” for his trouble.
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