President Donald Trump has tasked SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to evaluate wasteful spending at the Department of Education and the Pentagon, under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Musk is leading.
DOGE is tasked with eliminating government spending, waste and streamlining efficiency and operations, and is expected to influence White House policy on budget matters.
“I’ve instructed him to go check out Education, to check out the Pentagon … and sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad, but I don’t think proportionally, you’re going to see anything like we just saw,” Trump told reporters about his plans for Musk Friday during a press conference while hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
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On Monday, Trump and DOGE launched an effort to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development, a group that works to deliver aid to impoverished countries and development assistance.
The group has come under scrutiny from DOGE, and in an X audio message Musk said Sunday he was “in the process” of “shutting down USAID,” for corrupt spending, and that Trump reportedly agreed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, now acting director of the independent agency, said Monday that USAID was not “functioning” and that the organization isn’t a “global charity.”
“It needs to be aligned with the national interest of the U.S,” Rubio said. “They’re not a global charity, these are taxpayer dollars. People are asking simple questions. What are they doing with the money?
“We are spending taxpayers’ money,” he said. “We owe the taxpayers assurances that it furthers our national interest.”
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DOGE has been tasked with cutting $2 trillion from the federal government budget through efforts to slash spending, government programs and the federal workforce.
Musk has faced some backlash for his interference in governmental affairs thus far. For example, Senate Democrats have accused DOGE of conducting a “hostile takeover” after reports emerged Musk had access to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s central payment systems.
The Department of Education and the Department of Defense have some of the largest budgets of government agencies. For fiscal year 2024, the Department of Education received a budget of $79.1 billion, while the Department of Defense received a budget of $841.4 billion, according to government documents.
Meanwhile, Trump has signaled he’s seeking to completely nix the Department of Education through an executive order.
Even so, Congress would need to pass legislation to completely disband an agency, under Article II of the Constitution.
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Trump told reporters on Tuesday that while he has tapped Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), to lead the Department of Education, he wants her to eventually lose her job.
“What I want to do is let the states run schools,” Trump said. “I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.”
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
