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United States President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he expects Elon Musk, the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, to uncover billions of dollars in fraud and abuse at the Pentagon during an audit led by the billionaire.
Trump made this statement in a Super Bowl interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier.
Musk, whom the White House describes as a special government employee, has been tasked by Trump with leading an effort to reduce the size of the United States federal workforce.
As part of that initiative, the X owner is expected to have access to confidential information within computer systems across various government agencies.
“I’m going to tell him [Musk] very soon, maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education.
“Then I’m going to say, ‘Go to the military. Let’s check the military.’
“We are going to find billions—hundreds of millions—of dollars in fraud and abuse,” Trump said of the largest federal department.
The Pentagon’s budget is approaching $1 trillion per year.
Just last December, then-President Joe Biden signed a bill authorising $895 billion in defence spending for the fiscal year ending 30 September.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has sued billionaire Elon Musk, saying he failed to disclose his ownership of Twitter stock in a timely manner in early 2022, before buying the social media site.
As a result, the SEC alleges, Musk was able to underpay “by at least $150 million” for shares he bought after he should have disclosed his ownership of more than 5% of Twitter’s shares. Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 and later renamed it X.
Musk started amassing Twitter shares in early 2022, and by March of that year, he owned more than 5%. At this point, the complaint says, he was required by law to disclose his ownership, but he failed to do so until April 4, 11 days after the report was due.
Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement that the lawsuit “is an admission by the SEC that they cannot bring an actual case” since Musk has “done nothing wrong.” He called the lawsuit a “sham.”
