Musk tells Cabinet that DOGE email was ‘pulse check’ for workers, warns US will ‘go bankrupt’ without action

President Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk to speak at the top of the first full Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss the progress made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Musk, standing in his signature black suit jacket with a T-shirt underneath, spoke at the meeting in which the media was present and made some clarifications about what he and DOGE are doing, as well as a recent email sent to government employees.

“I actually just call myself a humble tech support hero,” Musk stated. “As crazy as it sounds, that is almost a literal description of the work of the DOGE team is doing is helping fix the government computer systems,” Musk said, saying the computer systems are “extremely old” and there are many mistakes in the systems. 

“So we are actually tech support,” Musk said. “It’s ironic, but it’s true.” 

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Elon Musk speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

He also defended last week’s productivity email to federal employees. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday in a press briefing that more than 1 million federal workers participated in the Musk and the Office of Personnel Management directive to provide a bullet-point list of their work accomplishments from the previous week.

“I think that email was perhaps interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?” Musk said. “And if you have a pulse and two neurons, you could reply to an email.” 

Musk said the task was “not a high bar” and should be something “anyone could accomplish.” 

“But what we are trying to get to the bottom of is we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can’t respond,” Musk said. “And some people who are not real people … like they’re fictional individuals that are collecting a paycheck … well somebody is collecting paychecks on a fictional individual, so we’re just literally trying to figure out are these people real, are they alive, and can they write email, which I think is a reasonable expectation.” 

Musk explained that “our goal is not to be capricious or unfair” in how DOGE operates, and that the “overall goal here with the DOGE team is to help address the enormous deficit.” 

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Cabinet Meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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“We simply cannot sustain a country on $2 trillion deficits,” Musk said, noting the interest on the national debt exceeds Defense Department spending. 

President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we’re spending like $1 trillion on interest. If this continues, the country will go, become de facto bankrupt. It’s not an optional thing.” 

“It is a central thing that’s the reason I’m here. And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way,” Musk added. “But if we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt. That’s why it has to be done.” 

Musk said he was confident that DOGE could find $1 trillion in savings, or roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget, and thanked Cabinet members for their support. 

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“We do need to move quickly,” Musk said. “If we’re to achieve $1 trillion deficit reduction in financial year 2026, it requires saving $4 billion per day every day from now through the end of September. But we can do it. And we will do it.”