President Donald Trump invited Elon Musk to speak at Wednesday’s full Cabinet meeting. The focus? Progress made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, dressed in his usual black jacket and T-shirt, addressed the room. Reporters were present as he explained DOGE’s work and a recent email sent to federal employees.
“I actually just call myself a humble tech support hero,” Musk said. “As crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work the DOGE team is doing—helping fix the government computer systems.” He called them “extremely old” and full of mistakes.
“So we are actually tech support,” he added. “It’s ironic, but it’s true.”
He defended last week’s productivity email to federal workers. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Tuesday that over 1 million employees responded to Musk and the Office of Personnel Management’s directive. They submitted bullet points of their weekly work.
“I think that email was perhaps interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?” Musk joked. “And if you have a pulse and two neurons, you could reply to an email.”
Musk said the task was “not a high bar.” He expected anyone to handle it.
“But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead,” Musk said. “And some people who are not real… fictional individuals collecting a paycheck. Well, someone is collecting that money. We just want to know—are these people real, are they alive, and can they write an email?”
He insisted DOGE’s mission was not about being “capricious or unfair.” The real goal? Tackling the massive deficit.
“We simply cannot sustain a country on $2 trillion deficits,” Musk warned. He pointed out that interest payments on the national debt now exceed defense spending.
“We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we’re spending like $1 trillion on interest,” he said. “If this continues, the country will go bankrupt. It’s not optional.”
“It is a central thing—that’s the reason I’m here,” Musk continued. “And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way. But if we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt. That’s why it has to be done.”
Musk expressed confidence in DOGE’s ability to save $1 trillion, or 15% of the $7 trillion budget. He thanked Cabinet members for their support.
“We do need to move quickly,” he said. “To cut $1 trillion by the 2026 fiscal year, we must save $4 billion per day. But we can do it. And we will do it.”