Musk to uncover billions in ‘fraud and abuse’ at US Pentagon

US President Donald Trump has predicted that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will find “hundreds of billions” of dollars of abuse and fraud in the Pentagon.

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10 February 2025

EghtesadOnline: Trump said on Sunday that he expects Musk will discover that “billions of dollars” have been abused and defrauded in the Pentagon.

“I’m going to go, go to the military. Let’s check the military … we’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” he said.

Also, in an interview, the national security adviser Mike Waltz said, “Everything there (Pentagon) seems to cost too much, take too long and deliver too little to the soldiers... We do need business leaders to go in there and absolutely reform the Pentagon’s acquisition process.”

According to governmental reports, the Pentagon’s budget is approaching $1 trillion per year. In December, then-President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing $895 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2025.

Musk, whom the White House considers a special government employee, heads a new governmental department called “Department of Government Efficiency” and has been tasked with reducing the size of the federal government, its spending and the US national debt.

Critics, however, say these efforts are illegal, and risk exposing classified information because Musk and DOGE lack the necessary expertise and more importantly, Musk’s companies have contracts with numerous departments of the government, especially the Pentagon.

Combating wasteful spending, downsizing the government and reducing the national debt were key promises of Trump’s presidency.

Musk, who gave millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign, became the most outspoken critic of governmental overspending and claimed his financial acumen, gave him the necessary knowledge to not only reduce government spending but also reduce the national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Pentagon audit is the latest attempt by the Trump administration and Musk to keep their promises. / Mehr