'We have very smart people going in, so I've instructed him: go into Education, go into military, go into other things as we go along,' says US president
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he has directed tech billionaire Elon Musk to set his sights on the Pentagon and Education Department next in a bid to review and cut spending at the federal agencies.
Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump said Musk will go through "just about everything" when he and his small band of engineers go through the departments.
"We have very smart people going in, so I've instructed him: 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. 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," he said.
Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, a commission appointed by Trump, has recently eviscerated the US's international aid and development agency, putting nearly all of its 10,000 employees on leave amid so far unsubstantiated claims of corruption and fraud.
Trump and his senior officials and aides, including Musk, have bemoaned Congressionally-funded government programs of which they take issue ideologically, but it does not appear they have deviated into fraud.
Further claims that USAID spent either $50 million or $100 million -- the figure has changed depending on which official has made the allegations and at which point -- on condoms for Gaza have yet to be proven. It appears as though that sum is greater than the entire USAID budget for condom distribution worldwide, and a report published last year, but since taken down alongside the agency's entire website, said USAID did not fund any condom programs in the entire Middle East from the 2021-2023 fiscal years.
The Guardian newspaper first reported on the federal record. The agency's report was published in September, and said only one small shipment of oral and injectable contraceptives was sent to the region, specifically to Jordan.
The crackdown on USAID came after longtime senior Trump aide Stephen Miller singled out the agency in January by claiming "98%" of its "workforce either donated to Kamala Harris or another left-wing candidate," arguing on national television that it is necessary for Trump to "get control of government."
"Overwhelmingly, the career federal service in this country is far left, left wing," he said, more broadly referring to the federal government's 2 million employees.
