Musk says DOGE will quickly fix mistakes it makes in cutting programs

Billionaire Elon Musk, who President Donald Trump has tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spoke at the new administration's first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and said that DOGE may make some mistakes, but it will work quickly to fix them.

"I should say we'll also make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make mistakes, we will fix it very quickly," Musk said. 

"So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very, very briefly was Ebola, Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention, and there was no interruption," he added. Ebola is a viral hemorrhagic fever that is highly infectious and carries a high mortality rate among people who are infected.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was one of the first DOGE targets after the Trump administration took office, with the administration looking to move the agency under the oversight of the State Department. In that process, the Trump administration will retain some USAID staffers to continue running life-saving programs, while other programs are ended and workers laid off.

WHAT IS USAID AND WHY IS IT IN TRUMP'S CROSSHAIRS?

Musk said on X Spaces on Feb. 3 that he and Trump decided to make cuts at USAID after it "became apparent that it's not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms. You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair."

He wrote in a follow-up post on X that "the worms are crawling to their pet politicians to save them."

Musk said at a previous appearance in the Oval Office with Trump that DOGE "would not bat 1,000" and that he wanted to be corrected when he made mistakes. DOGE recently began posting examples of its spending cuts, but made edits to the list after questions were raised about its accuracy after one contract was listed as saving $8 billion even though it was actually for $8 million.

DOGE IS LAYING OFF THOUSANDS: WHAT IMPACT WILL HAVE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE ECONOMY?

At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, Musk said the need to make rapid changes at agencies and potentially make mistakes in the process is due to the size of the federal budget deficit.

"We do need to move quickly if we're going to achieve $1 trillion deficit reduction in financial year 2026. It requires saving $4 billion per day, from now through the end of the year. But we can do it, and we will do it," Musk said. 

MUSK WEIGHS A 'DOGE DIVIDEND' TO SEND AMERICANS CHECKS USING SAVED FUNDS

Musk and Trump have previously expressed an openness to potentially sending "DOGE dividends" to American taxpayers, though Musk later said curbing the roughly $2 trillion annual deficit has to be the priority.

"The overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit. We simply cannot sustain, as a country, $2 trillion deficits," Musk said Wednesday. "Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department's spending. We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending, like, $1 trillion on interest."

"If this continues, the country will go and become de facto bankrupt. It's not an optional thing. It is an essential thing. That's the reason I'm here, and taking a lot of flak, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way," he said.

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"If we don't do this, America will go bankrupt. That's why it has to be done. I'm confident at this point… that we can actually find $1 trillion in savings. That would be roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget," Musk said. "And obviously, that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room."