In his team’s first interview on behalf of the Department of Government Efficiency on Thursday, Elon Musk called the department’s efforts a “revolution.”
Why it matters: DOGE has slashed out tens of thousands of workers, closed agencies, revoked grants and contracts, and completely changed the way the United States does business—changes that the public routinely says pollsters they dislike.
“This is a revolution, and I think it might be the biggest revolution in the government since the original revolution,” Musk told Fox News while accompanied by seven DOGE colleagues.
Musk said that the remaining work might be completed shortly.
Zoom in: His designation as a “special government employee” allows him to work on government projects for 130 days out of every 365 days. Bret Baier, the host of Fox, questioned Musk about his intentions to remain after that 130-day period.
“I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion within that timeframe,” he said.
“What seems like incredibly fast action by government standards is — it’s slower than I’d like, to be totally frank,” he later added, adding that he would prefer to be moving even more quickly.
The intrigue: Up until now, DOGE has primarily operated in secrecy, with neither Musk nor the administration revealing the precise number of employees or who works there.
Engineers, bankers, and business executives who have all been assigned to restructure different government organizations were among the DOGE employees who joined him on Monday.
The co-founder of Airbnb, Joe Gebbia, stated: “We really believe that the government can have an Apple Store-like experience.” Gebbia is currently working on simplifying the retirement process for government employees.
Flashback: During his final TV appearance earlier this month, Musk sparked controversy by telling Fox that entitlements were the “big one” to target in his fight to reduce government spending and expose fraud.
After that, DOGE pushed for significant changes to Social Security’s services, which were partly reversed this week. People will continue to get their benefits, the White House has said.
Musk and associates emphasized Thursday that Social Security is beset by fraud, asserting that 15 million “living” individuals aged 120 and more were on the agency’s rolls and that 40% of phone center calls were bogus in some instances.
The interim commissioner of Social Security has denied the fraud claims on several occasions, claiming that the true amount was only around $100 million annually, or 1% of the agency’s total payouts.
The numbers show that Musk’s business interests, especially Tesla, have been negatively impacted by the outrage over his cutbacks. This year, Tesla’s shares have lost a third of their value.
The government is pursuing domestic terrorism charges over Molotov cocktail attacks that were purportedly sparked by the #TeslaTakedown movement, and sales are plummeting globally.
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