Elon Musk takes aim at national debt, warns of 'de facto bankruptcy' without DOGE: '$2 trillion in deficits'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared at President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss his waste-cutting efforts with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) commission.During the meeting, Musk took aim at what he described as $2 trillion in deficits, stating that America "simply cannot sustain" that amount of debt. As of Wednesday, the U.S. national debt has ballooned to $36,220,749,649,855.42."Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department spending," Musk claimed. "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."MUSK WEIGHS A 'DOGE DIVIDEND' TO SEND AMERICANS CHECKS USING SAVED FUNDSMusk then described DOGE as "not an optional thing" and argued that it was "central" to reforming the U.S. economy."That's the reason I'm here," the tech billionaire said. "And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way.""But if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt," Musk continued. "That's why it has to be done. I'm confident at this point, knock on wood… that we can actually find $1 trillion in savings. That would be roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget. And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. And I'd like to thank everyone for the support."DOGE IS LAYING OFF THOUSANDS: WHAT IMPACT WILL HAVE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE ECONOMY?Musk's recent remarks come as DOGE continues identifying and cutting government waste for the taxpayers' intended benefit. At Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, Musk admitted that DOGE has also made some mistakes, including accidentally canceling the U.S. Agency for International Development's (USAID) Ebola prevention program. GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE"I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restored the Ebola prevention, and there was no interruption," Musk said. "We won't be perfect. But when we make mistakes, we will fix it very quickly."FOX Business' Eric Revell contributed to this report.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business