U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned he expects Elon Musk to seek out tons of of billions of {dollars} of fraud and abuse on the Pentagon throughout an audit that the billionaire will lead.
“I’m going to inform him very quickly, like possibly in 24 hours, to go test the Division of Training. … Then I’m going to go, go to the navy. Let’s test the navy,” Trump mentioned in a Tremendous Bowl interview with Fox Information’ Bret Baier, an excerpt of which was aired on Sunday morning.
“We’re going to seek out billions, tons of of billions of {dollars} of fraud and abuse,” Trump mentioned of the biggest federal division.
The Pentagon’s funds is approaching US$1 trillion per yr. In December, then-President Joe Biden signed a invoice authorizing $895 billion in protection spending for the fiscal yr ending Sept. 30.
Musk, who the White Home says is a particular authorities worker, has been tasked by Trump to steer an effort to slash the size of the U.S. federal workforce. As a part of that initiative, Musk aides have sought entry to confidential data in pc techniques at numerous authorities companies.
Critics say the efforts are doubtless unlawful, threat exposing categorised data and in observe are gutting total companies with out congressional approval.
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Nationwide Safety Adviser Mike Waltz prompt in a separate interview on Sunday that the Pentagon’s shipbuilding processes might be an space of specific curiosity for the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), and he characterised the Pentagon typically as full of unnecessary bloat.
“Every part there appears to price an excessive amount of, take too lengthy and ship too little to the troopers… We do want enterprise leaders to go in there and completely reform the Pentagon’s acquisition course of,” Waltz mentioned in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“There’s a lot to look into in shipbuilding, which is an absolute mess,” Waltz added.
Leaders from throughout the political spectrum have lengthy criticized waste and inefficiency on the Pentagon. However Democrats and civil service unions say Musk’s DOGE lacks the experience to restructure the Pentagon, and their efforts threat exposing categorised packages.
Musk’s firms additionally maintain main contracts with the Pentagon, which has raised important battle of curiosity considerations.
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