President Donald Trump, in a news conference with the Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, indicated that Elon Musk will have wide latitude to go into federal departments and agencies as he aims to slash federal spending by $2 trillion.
He said he’s asked Musk to review “just about” every federal agency.
“Pentagon, Education, just about everything,” the president said. “We’re gonna go through everything.”
Trump said he tells Musk where to go, and he goes to that agency.
“I will pick out a target, and I say, ‘Go in,'” the president said.
In response to a reporter’s question about why DOGE needs access to Americans’ personal information, like bank accounts and Social Security numbers, the president appeared to support DOGE’s efforts while indicating that it did not need the data.
“Well, it doesn’t, but they get it very easily, I mean we don’t have very good security in our country,” Trump said. However, DOGE has obtained access to the information because of the president’s orders allowing it, not because of a lapse in security.
He added DOGE would be examining trillions in federal funds spent “perhaps illegally.” He said he’s proud of the job “this group of young people” is doing.
The president weighed in on a DOGE staff member, Marco Elez, who resigned, according to the Wall Street Journal, which linked him to a now-defunct social media account expressing racist and eugenic views.
The Journal found a post from last July that read, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.” In September, another post on X read, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity. Normalize Indian hate.”
CBS News has not confirmed the existence of the account or posts. The Journal said that Elez did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Vice President JD Vance, in response to a poll on X, said of Elez’s employment, “I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life. We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.”
Trump said he wasn’t familiar with the details, but if Vance supported bringing the employee back, “I’m with the vice president.”
Soon after the news conference, Musk said Elez would be rehired. “He will be brought back,” he wrote on X. “To err is human, to forgive divine.”
The president was also asked whether he intended to fire the FBI agents who worked on the investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“No, but I’ll fire some of them because some of them were corrupt,” he replied.
