Trump says Musk and DOGE need ‘approval’ amid uproar in Washington

[Donald Trump]

We’re trying to shrink government and he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else, if not better.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

President Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk with shrinking the size of the federal government. But what he’s done with the role is already sparking a lawsuit. A coalition sued the Treasury Department this week for allegedly sharing confidential data with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Meanwhile, Democrats are challenging the unprecedented power given to the unelected billionaire.

[Jamie Raskin]

“we don’t have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk, and that’s going to become real clear.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

Trump said Monday he’ll pump the brakes on Musk if he goes too far.

[Donald Trump]

Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval. And we’ll give him the approval where appropriate. Where not appropriate, we won’t.

[Simone Del Rosario]

The president’s comments came the same day his administration shuttered the offices of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

[Elon Musk]

With regard to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down.

[Marco Rubio]

I’m the acting director of USAID.

[Simone Del Rosario]

The White House put the agency under the control of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with plans to fold it into the State Department.

USAID disperses financial aid to nations around the globe. President John F. Kennedy set up the agency in 1961.

[Marco Rubio]

There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Sunday morning, the world’s richest person and close adviser to Trump posted to X, “USAID is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”

Musk injected more than $250 million into Trump’s successful presidential campaign. In return, Trump put him in charge of the newly minted Department Of Government Efficiency to shrink the federal footprint.

Democrats are hyper-critical of Musk’s involvement with the Trump administration.

[Don Beyer]
“President Trump directed his corrupt billionaire friend, Elon Musk to ransack a critical agency of the U.S. government. Musk and his band of unelected acolytes at DOGE have locked out USAID employees from their offices, improperly accessed highly classified information, purged the agency of its nonpartisan leadership and thrown the agency into chaos.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

Meanwhile, DOGE employees have reportedly gained access to Treasury data, including payment systems tied to Social Security and Medicare.

[Donald Trump]

“Mr. President, why is it important for Elon Musk to have access to the payment systems at Treasury?”
“Well, he’s got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him and it’s only if we agree with him. He’s a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs. And we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers.

But they’re finding tremendous amounts of really bad things, bad spending. You’ve been reading about, you’ve been writing about some of it, frankly, and some of the things that they’ve been doing is just terrible.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

Trump established DOGE through an executive order signed on Inauguration Day. It is not a government agency. But in that directive, Trump called on all agencies to give DOGE “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems.”

[Chuck Schumer]
“Last Friday, DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) forcefully gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems and to the most sensitive information of virtually every U.S. citizen. Donald Trump basically handed DOGE the Social Security data of virtually every American citizen.”

“DOGE staffers, whomever they are now, have unprecedented access to the most sensitive payment data in the entire federal government, with no transparency, with no guardrails. And guess what? The one independent watchdog who could have provided oversight was fired by Donald Trump over a week ago.”

[Simone Del Rosario]

Despite those concerns, Trump says there are guardrails on Musk, and promised his involvement in government will be conflict-free.

[Donald Trump]

I’m impressed, because he’s running, obviously a big company has nothing to do if there’s a conflict that we won’t let him get near it. But he does have a good, natural instinct. He’s got a team of very talented people. We’re trying to shrink government, and he can probably shrink it as well as anybody else, if not better.

[Simone Del Rosario]

Trump initially tapped former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead DOGE with Musk. But Ramaswamy left the role before the president officially established it, leaving Musk alone at the top.

Ramaswamy is expected to launch a run for governor of Ohio in 2026. Coincidentally, DOGE is set to dissolve on July 4, 2026, the 250th birthday of the U-S-of-A. For SAN, I’m SDR.