Elon Musk is lowering the target of his claim that he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, now saying half of that would be ideal.
Musk, a co-chairman of the Department of Government Efficiency, called the $2 trillion target “the best-case outcome” but said $1 trillion would create “no inflation” and “be an epic outcome.”
“If we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one, and if we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and kind of free up the economy to have additional growth — such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply — then there will be no inflation,” Musk said in an interview on the social media platform X, which he owns. “So that, I think, would be an epic outcome.”
His move to lower his self-set target comes before President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month. Musk said there are plenty of targets he has in the federal government to save money but did not offer specifics.
“It’s very, very hard for people to care about spending someone else’s money,” he said.
“Actually, I know people in the government who do care about, just as a matter of principle, spending money effectively. And they try to do so, and they can’t. The system prevents them from doing so,” Musk continued.
DOGE has no direct power to make spending or regulatory cuts to the federal government, but Musk has a strong influence in the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, as seen when he shot down a bipartisan spending bill to keep the government open late last year.
Members on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill have embraced some of DOGE’s ideas to cut spending. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) has been supportive of some of DOGE’s initiatives, becoming the first Democrat to join the DOGE caucus.
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“This caucus has no power, does not take any votes. It’s a group of members that get together and have conversations,” Moskowitz told NPR in December. “Look, I don’t know any American who thinks the government is perfect.”
“If there are people with legitimate suggestions on how we can improve government efficiency, bring technology to government, or figure out where there’s waste and fraud to save taxpayer dollars, we should do that,” he said. “It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”