Trump: Musk-led Efficiency Ministry will discover billions of dollars in waste in US Department of Defense

US President Donald Trump said he expects Elon Musk to discover billions of dollars in fraud and violations in the US Department of Defense during the audit he will lead as supervisor of the government efficiency ministry.

According to Reuters, Trump added, in an interview with Fox News, an excerpt of which was broadcast on Sunday morning: “I will tell him very soon, maybe within 24 hours, to go and audit (how things are being done) the Department of Education… and then the military. Let’s audit (the affairs of) the military.”

Trump said of the Department of Defense, the largest US department: “We will find billions and hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud and violations.”

The Defense Department’s budget is approaching one trillion dollars annually. Last December, former US President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing $895 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year ending September 30.

Trump has tapped billionaire Musk, who the White House says is a private employee, to lead an effort to shrink the federal government’s workforce. As part of the effort, Musk’s aides have sought to access classified information on computer systems at various government agencies. Critics say the effort is likely illegal, risks revealing classified information and could effectively eliminate entire agencies without congressional approval. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz said in a separate interview Sunday that the Department of Government Efficiency may look specifically at the Defense Department’s shipbuilding operations. “There’s a lot to look at with shipbuilding,” Waltz told NBC. “It’s an absolute mess.”