Trump guides Musk’s sword to cut military spending

Washington — US President Donald Trump said he expects Elon Musk to find billions of dollars of fraud and abuse at the Pentagon during an audit that the billionaire will lead.

“I’m going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the department of education. Then I’m going to go to the military. Let’s check the military,” Trump said in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier, an excerpt of which was aired on Sunday morning.

“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump said of the largest federal department. The Pentagon’s budget is approaching $1-trillion a year.

In December, then-president Joe Biden signed a bill authorising $895bn in defence spending for the fiscal year ending September 30.

Musk, who the White House says is a special government employee, has been tasked by Trump to lead an effort to slash the size of the US federal workforce. As part of that initiative, Musk aides have sought access to confidential information in computer systems at various government agencies.

Critics say the efforts are likely illegal, risk exposing classified information and in practice are gutting entire agencies without congressional approval.

National security adviser Mike Waltz suggested in a separate interview on Sunday that the Pentagon’s shipbuilding processes could be an area of particular interest for the department of government efficiency (Doge), and he characterised the Pentagon in general as full of unnecessary bloat.

“Everything there seems to cost too much, take too long and deliver too little to the soldiers... We do need business leaders to go in there and absolutely reform the Pentagon’s acquisition process,” Waltz said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “There is plenty to look into in shipbuilding, which is an absolute mess,” Waltz added.

Leaders from across the political spectrum have long criticised waste and inefficiency at the Pentagon. But Democrats and civil service unions say Musk’s Doge lacks the expertise to restructure the Pentagon, and their efforts risk exposing classified programmes.

Musk’s companies also hold major contracts with the Pentagon, which has raised significant conflict of interest concerns.

Reuters