America has lost billions of taxpayer dollars to “waste, fraud, and abuse,” the president has said
US President Donald Trump has sounded the alarm over what he described as rampant corruption in the American government, while vowing to crack down on inefficient bureaucracy that costs the country billions of dollars.
The president delivered his remarks in the Oval Office on Tuesday, with Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and a close ally, standing next to the Resolute Desk as the two outlined their vision for cutting government spending.
Trump noted in particular deals between the government and private contractors, recalling one case in which a consultant – whom he did not identify – was hired for three months, but continued to receive money over 20 years.
“I see a lot of kickbacks. Tremendous kickbacks. Because nobody could be so stupid to give some of these contracts,” he argued.
Meanwhile, billions of dollars go “in waste, fraud, and abuse,” Trump said, adding that “nobody had any idea it was that bad, that sick, and that corrupt.” He stressed that he ran on promises to fight corruption, and he planned to do precisely that.
Echoing the president’s remarks, Musk noted that “there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars.” The Trump administration and DOGE’s mission is “to restore democracy,” he added.
He also noted that the US has no choice but to usher in major reforms. “We’ve got a $2 trillion [budget] deficit. And if we don’t do something about this deficit, the country’s going bankrupt,” Musk said.
Trump also criticized the US judiciary for attempts to stop DOGE from auditing government agencies, particularly the Treasury Department’s payment system. “If I need a vote of Congress to find fraud and abuse, it’s fine with me… How could a judge want to hold us back from finding all of this fraud and finding all of this incompetence?” he charged.
While Trump has insisted that the goal of audits is to eliminate corruption, opponents have accused Musk and his agency of overstepping authority, seeking to dismantle critical government programs, and potentially misusing sensitive data for political purposes.
As part of its push to combat government inefficiency, the Trump administration has already cracked down on the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Washington’s primary vehicle for funding political projects abroad, by suspending most foreign aid. The US president earlier called for the agency to be shut down, calling it run by “radical lunatics.”
