Trump to direct Musk to review Pentagon, Education spending

President Trump on Friday said he plans to direct Elon Musk to review spending at the Defense and Education departments as the new administration works to overhaul the federal government.

“Pentagon, Education, just about everything. We’re going to go through everything,” Trump said during a presser alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

“I’ve instructed him to go check out Education, to check out the Pentagon, which is the military. And, you know, sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad,” the president said. 

Musk, the tech entrepreneur and Tesla CEO, is heading up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a commission aimed at cutting government spending. Trump said earlier Friday that Musk is doing a “very good job” after controversial changes to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and reports that Musk’s team has received access to sensitive Treasury Department payment systems.

Trump was asked during the presser about criticism from Democrats that some of DOGE’s work is a power grab, and whether there’s anything he’s instructed Musk not to touch.

“Well, we haven’t discussed that much. I’ll tell him to go here, go there. He does it. He’s got a very capable group of people, very, very, very, very capable,” Trump said of his billionaire ally.

“So, I’ve instructed him to go into Education, go into military go into other things as we go along. And they’re finding massive amounts of fraud, abuse, waste, all of these things, so. But I will pick out a target, and I say, ‘go in.’ There could be areas that we won’t but I think everything’s fertile.”

Asked about whether Musk would also probe federal spending on programs like Social Security, Trump said those “don’t really have to be looked at” by Musk, but that “they can be looked at by us.”

“Social Security will not be touched, it will only be strengthened. We have illegal immigrants on Social Security, we’re going to find out who there are and take them out,” the president added.