He sits at the top of a large conference table inside the Roosevelt room in the western wing on Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk, who was wearing his shirt and the distinctive jacket, holding the issue of whether the Ministry of Government will meet his pledge to reduce $ 1 trillion of the federal budget.
“I think it can be done, but it is a long way to go, as you know, it is really difficult,” he said. “It is a kind of pain, as you know, is the cabinet and is ready for Congress? Because it can be done, but it requires dealing with a lot of complaints.”
He contradicts his confidence in his chest just a few months ago about what he will achieve in the government. Mr. Musk stands on the stage at the Trump gathering at Madison Square Garden in October, and a roar crowd said it could be cut off.No less than one trillion“In federal spending. It is half this number.
Now, Mr. Musk, who has not previously worked in the government, was forced to review his expectations more, although he still insists that his goals remain technically possible. It was 101 days in the government is a storm, and it seems that the series of interviews he had this week – including Wednesday’s session with major newspapers and television networks – was an attempt to control the correspondence.
He clashed with the cabinet secretaries and complaints from legislators whose services and jobs were subjected to threats due to the discounts from the Ministry of Government Agency. He argued with the president on customs tariffs and faced protests from federal employees, including his decision to dismantle the entire agencies, including the United States Agency for International Development and the Financial Consumer Protection Office.
He has also faced a problem with mathematics, budget experts have warned of both sides of: There is no way to reduce a trillion dollars without treating the most political budget -sensitive parts, social safety network programs and military spending.
The billionaire says he is proud of the discounts made by Dog. He says he is planning to return to spending most of his time working on his companies, which include Tesla, X and Spacex, but he is expected to devote about two days a week to work for government work, and to visit Washington every week.
Dog was originally intended to work until July 4, 2026, but Mr. Musk said he could imagine the effort made during the entire four years of the Trump administration. He said that it is up to President Trump to report the period he wanted to continue working on the initiative. Mr. Musk is allowed to serve only 130 days as a “private government employee”, but if he reduces his hours to part -time, he can extend for months in the Trump administration.
Mr. Musk insisted that Dog would do well in his absence. But he was elaborating, as he resorted to jokes, when he was asked about who would fill his place.
Mr. Musk said: “Dog is a way of life. Like Buddhism.”
Click again, he said: “Is it a need for Buddha to Buddhism?”
In Mr. Musk’s account, Dog, who compared him to “starting the operation”, gave the intense explosion in his interest that he requires him to remove from Earth. Mr. Musk claims that he saved taxpayers 160 billion dollars so far.
But Dog on the InternetReceipt“It does not represent 64 percent of this total. The group not only separated $ 58 billion of its savings by linking it to specific contracts, grants and contracts. InflatedBy including explicit errors and guesses about the future.
Mr. Musk said that it is still possible to “find” 1 trillion dollars of savings to face the problem of inflated national debt, but it is still possible to see whether there is “sufficient political will in Congress and other places to do so already.”
“We may not succeed,” he said.
Mr. Trump explained to Mr. Musk that some of the most important parts of the federal government are outside the limits of dangerous reform. The president ruled out any changes to social security and medical care, which represents more than a third of federal spending. Defense Minister Beit Higseth said he wanted to increase the Pentagon’s budget to 1 trillion dollars.
In the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Musk confirmed that there are other billions to be rescued from waste cuts and that his team found clear evidence of fraud.
Thinking about his time in Washington, Mr. Musk shared an extraordinary amount of details about his life with Mr. Trump.
“I think we are friends of Hamimoun, and we will be in Air Force One or Marine One, which is like,” Hello, do you want to stay? And Mr. Musk said: “Certainly,” Mr. Musk said.
Mr. Musk finished spending the night in the Lincoln bedroom on several occasions.
Mr. Trump said: During one of these asleep, Mr. Trump called him late at night to tell him to make sure some ice cream from the kitchen. The billionaire said he helped himself in a full container of caramel Hagan Daz.
He said, “I was like, these things are amazing.”
David a. Fahrenold The reports contributed.
May 1, 2025
:
A previous version of this article was mistaken, in one case, the savings separated by Dog were detailed. It is 58 billion dollars, not 58 million dollars.
