Elon Musk shared on Thursday that cutting a trillion dollars from federal spending is “entirely possible” without affecting vital services, asserting that Social Security beneficiaries “will receive more money” thanks to their hard work.
Musk, 54, expressed his confidence in reaching this goal—which would reduce the federal deficit by half—within just 130 days. He mentioned that his team was on track to save “$4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week.”
“This is a revolution, and I think it might be the biggest revolution in government since the original revolution,” said the world’s wealthiest individual in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, joined by his Department of Government Efficiency colleagues during their inaugural joint appearance.
Musk proclaimed, “America will be solvent. The critical programs that people depend upon will work, and it’s going to be a fantastic future. And are we going to get a lot of complaints along the way? Absolutely.”
Should Musk’s team maintain the $4 billion-per-day pace, this would result in $520 billion in savings within the 130-day period, which is the legal timeframe during which he can serve as an unpaid special government employee.
“I think we will accomplish most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within [130 days],” Musk stated. “Our goal is to reduce the waste and fraud by $4 billion a day, every day, seven days a week. And so far, we are succeeding.”
As the head of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of X, Musk has been working swiftly through federal agencies since late January, orchestrating widespread staff cuts and sharply curtailing spending. This has included near-total closures of agencies like USAID, which had 10,000 employees, and the 1,700-person Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The exact savings from the Department of Government Efficiency’s initiative remain unclear, as key targets like the Pentagon have yet to undergo significant cuts.
“Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America will sink,” Musk told Baier. “That’s why we’re doing it.”
Aram Moghaddassi, a software engineer with DOGE, discussed the ongoing reforms at the Social Security Administration, especially following reports of website issues affecting the 68 million Americans receiving benefits for retirement, disability, and survivors.
“I’ll say the two improvements that we’re trying to make to Social Security are helping people that legitimately get benefits—protect them from fraud that they experience every day on a routine basis—and also make the experience better,” Moghaddassi said.
“When you want to change your bank account, you can call Social Security. We learned 40% of the phone calls that they get are from fraudsters” who attempt to steal payments, he added.
Musk interjected: “In fact, what we’re doing will help their benefits. Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less. I want to emphasize that, as a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of Social Security will receive more money, not less money.”
“The 94-year-old grandmother is actually a result of DOGE’s work going to get her check, she’s not going to be robbed by forces like she’s getting robbed today, and the solvency of the federal government will ensure that she continues to receive those social security checks,” Musk explained.
“The reason we’re doing this is because if we don’t do it, America is going to go insolvent and go bankrupt, and nobody’s going to get anything.”
Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb, another billionaire, spoke about his role in helping DOGE digitize the retirement process for government employees, which is still largely paper-based, slowing retirements to just 8,000 per month.
“It’s an injustice to civil servants who are subjected to these processes that are older than the age of half the people watching the show tonight,” Gebbia remarked.
“We really believe that the government can have an Apple store-like experience—beautifully designed, great user experience, modern systems.”
Musk and his closest advisors noted that, despite the widespread layoffs—including those at USAID, CFPB, and, more recently, the Education Department, where 50% of staff were let go—the total number of firings represents a small fraction of the overall federal workforce.
The team pointed out that about 75,000 federal workers accepted buyout offers out of the over 3 million federal employees.
Anthony Armstrong, a former Morgan Stanley banker working for DOGE at the Office of Personnel Management, clarified that, “you’ve heard a lot of news about [reductions in force], about people getting fired at this moment in time, less than .15, not 1.5 less than .15 of the federal workforce has actually been given a RIF notice.”
“Basically almost no one’s gotten fired,” Musk added.
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