Elon Musk’s whirlwind cost-cutting tour through the federal government is next set to hit the CIA.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe personally invited the world’s richest man — who heads up the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — to “meet with him at the agency to discuss government efficiency,” according to The Hill.
Since January, DOGE and Musk have been turning over rocks in search of waste at government agencies with the stated goal of slashing $1 trillion in federal spending.
The nascent agency in recent weeks has set its sights on the Department of Education, USAID, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and even the Pentagon, overseeing mass firings and large-scale budget cuts and offering buyouts to federal employees.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has estimated that DOGE has identified about $800 million in savings so far at the Pentagon. He said the cuts involved items that were “not a good use of taxpayer dollars,” including a slew of Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs at the Navy.
“I do agree that we actually want to be careful in the cuts,” Musk said on Fox News on Thursday. “So, we want to measure twice, if not thrice, and to cut once. And actually, that is our approach.”
The eccentric billionaire’s cost-cutting measures — which he punctuated at last month’s CPAC conference where he brandished a chromed-out chainsaw — have earned a mix of praise and condemnation.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters found that 60% of respondents said they were not supportive of “the way Elon Musk and DOGE are dealing with workers employed by the federal government.”
Musk has emerged as a prominent fixture in the Trump administration, making appearances at cabinet meetings and holding joint press conferences with the president in the Oval Office. But his free-wheeling style and tendency to be loose with his words have started to raise some eyebrows.
Some of Musk’s recent comments about Social Security — which he branded “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” on Joe Rogan’s podcast — have prompted even Trump allies to push the White House to curb the Tesla CEO’s media appearances.
The CIA isn’t Musk’s first visit to a US intelligence agency on his quest to root out wasteful spending — he met with National Security Agency officials earlier this month after calling for an “overhaul” there.