Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowElon Musk called on Thursday for the United States to “delete entire agencies” from the federal government as part of his push under President Donald Trump to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.
Musk offered a wide-ranging survey via a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of what he described as the priorities of the Trump administration interspersed with multiple references to “thermonuclear warfare” and the possible dangers of artificial intelligence.
“We really have here rule of the bureaucracy as opposed to rule of the people—democracy,” Musk said, wearing a black T-shirt that read: “Tech Support.” He also joked that he was the “White House’s tech support,” borrowing from his profile on the social platform X, which he owns.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
While Musk has spoken to the summit in the past, his appearance on Thursday comes as he has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with Trump’s blessing since assuming leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. That’s included sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
Musk’s new role imbued his comments with more weight beyond being the world’s wealthiest person through his investments in SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla.
His remarks also offered a more-isolationist view of American power in the Middle East, where the U.S. has fought wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“A lot of attention has been on USAID for example,” Musk said, referring to Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “There’s like the National Endowment for Democracy. But I’m like, ‘OK, well, how much democracy have they achieved lately?’”
He added that the U.S. under Trump is “less interested in interfering with the affairs of other countries.”
There are “times the United States has been kind of pushy in international affairs, which may resonate with some members of the audience,” Musk said, speaking to the crowd in the UAE, an autocratically ruled nation of seven sheikhdoms.
“Basically, America should mind its own business, rather than push for regime change all over the place,” he said.
He also noted the Trump administration’s focus on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion work, at one point linking it to AI.
“If hypothetically, AI is designed for DEI, you know, diversity at all costs, it could decide that there’s too many men in power and execute them,” Musk said.
On AI, Musk said he believed X’s newly updated AI chatbot, Grok 3, would be ready in about two weeks, calling it at one point “kind of scary.”
He criticized Sam Altman’s management of OpenAI, which Musk just led a $97.4 billion takeover bid for, describing it as akin to a nonprofit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest becoming a “lumber company that chops down the trees.”
A court filing Wednesday on Musk’s behalf in the OpenAI dispute said he’d withdraw his bid if the ChatGPT maker drops its plan to convert into a for-profit company.
Musk also announced plans for a “Dubai Loop” project in line with his work in the Boring Company—which is digging tunnels in Las Vegas to speed transit.
A later statement from Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, said the city-state and the Boring Company “will explore the development” of a 17-kilometer (10.5-mile) underground network with 11 stations that could transport over 20,000 passengers an hour. He offered no financial terms for the deal.
“It’s going to be like a wormhole,” Musk promised. “You just wormhole from one part of the city—boom—and you’re out in another part of the city.”
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
Sounds wildly illegal
I’m sorry, Mumps, but the policy of the Trusk Administration is to actively involve itself in the affairs of foreign countries…Canada, Panama, and Greenland/Denmark are just the ones we know about so far. It’s been less than a month and Trusk has already publicly involved himself in these three nations’ affairs.
Don’t forget Trump claims he “owns” the Gaza strip now and plans to redevelop it and it will not have room for the Palestinians to return.
Sounds appropriate to me, and I doubt this is even close to the truth. Media twisting……….
It is interesting how our represetatives in Congress are saying nothing about the wide overstep of power. What Congress appropriates, only Congress can de-appropriate yet not a peep from Congress on how Trump and Musk have decided that the law does not matter and they can do whatever they want. Trump stated he wanted to be dictator when running for office, and that is just another promise he is keeping.
People go to prison for less
Let’s be clear about one thing here… Elon Musk IS the President right now, for all intents and purposes. Because he was born in South Africa, he wouldn’t qualify to legally run for President of the United States, so he’s probably promised a large portion of his wealth to Dictator Donnie in exchange for being the one to pull the strings. This is The Elon Musk show (with guest performances by a slew of far-right wackos and the architects behind Project 2025 – about which the Donald knows absolutely nothing, remember…). Why this doesn’t worry more people is beyond me. Nothing about having a single unelected person wielding so much power over the government is normal. And while he preaches transparency, we know virtually NOTHING of what he’s actually doing or finding (other than chasing rightwing conspiracy theories).