Elon Musk has called on the US government to “delete entire agencies” as part of his ongoing campaign to drastically reduce federal spending.
The tech billionaire, who has essentially been given free rein by President Donald Trump since the start of the new administration last month, told the World Governments Summit in Dubai that rather than merely reforming existing agencies, the US government needed a more radical approach.
“We should delete entire agencies,” he said in remarks delivered via video link. “If we don’t remove the roots of the problem, it’s easy for it to regrow.”
Musk also presented a sweeping critique of the US’s current system of government.
“We have rule by bureaucracy, not by the people,” Musk declared, wearing a black T-shirt that read “Tech Support”.
“There’s a tremendous amount of overregulation that’s happened over time, and this is an inevitable consequence of a long period of prosperity, is that you’re going to get more and more rules and regulations, more laws accumulate over time,” he said.
“And the normal course function for getting rid of rules and regulations is war, and it needs to be some kind of existential war where you have to do a reset in order to avoid being defeated in a war.”
Musk pointed to his team’s actions at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy, both of which have seen drastic spending freezes and cuts in the last fortnight alone.
He questioned both agencies’ work, remarking, “How much democracy have they really achieved recently?”
His speech also signalled a more isolationist vision of US foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East.
Musk stated that under Trump, the US will be “less interested in interfering with the affairs of other countries”.
While Musk has addressed the summit before, his comments on Thursday carried additional weight given the role of his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Despite its name, the entity is not a formally constituted government department, and Musk has decried efforts to make public the names of those working for him — some of whom have been given access to edit the code used in federal spending and payments systems, apparently without any official oversight.
Musk also addressed the Trump administration’s stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes, a top target of the two men’s anger, claiming that if artificial intelligence software were to be programmed with a DEI focus, it could in theory make drastic decisions such as eliminating men from positions of power.
Musk also discussed the upcoming launch of X’s new AI chatbot, Grok 3, which he described as both “exciting” and “kind of scary”, and criticised the direction of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, likening it to an environmental non-profit turning into a lumber company.
Musk has offered to buy the company, but has been refused by its CEO, Sam Altman.
(Source: Euronews)
