President Donald Trump says Elon Musk has no power to stop federal Treasury payments on his own, despite Elon having full access to the government’s sensitive financial systems. Speaking from the Oval earlier today, Trump addressed rumors that Elon’s D.O.G.E (Department of Government Efficiency) was blocking payments.
“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval,” the president told reporters. “If something didn’t have my OK, you’d hear about it real fast.”
Elon gained access to the Treasury’s payment systems after David Lebryk, the top career official responsible for managing federal disbursements, resigned last week. The system Elon now monitors acts as the federal government’s checkbook, processing billions of dollars in payments.
It reportedly contains confidential information on taxpayers, federal employees, contractors, and beneficiaries. Elon’s weekend post on X said that his team was already “rapidly shutting down improper payments,” which got him a ton of backlash from Democrats and government watchdogs.
Elon’s D.O.G.E targets USAID as tensions explode
Over the weekend, Elon revealed that his team had Trump’s full support to dismantle USAID’s operations. Elon said during a conversation on X (formerly Twitter) that he personally reviewed the situation with Trump.
“Like I said earlier, with regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it with him in detail, and he agreed we should shut it down,” Elon said.
An internal email sent to USAID employees by D.O.G.E engineer Gavin Kliger today announced that their headquarters was about to be shut down. USAID staff were blindsided, and within days, two top security officials were placed on leave after they blocked D.O.G.E workers from accessing internal systems.
A Financial Times report says that after the security officials were removed, Elon’s team gained access to parts of USAID’s internal network.
Some USAI officials are accused of resisting Elon’s changes. Matt Hopson, USAID’s chief of staff, resigned following the chaos, according to the Financial Times.
Critics say Trump is using Elon’s D.O.G.E to gut USAID and push his “America First” agenda. Democratic Senator Chris Coons accused Trump of harassing USAID employees before trying to “gut the agency altogether.”
USAID, which has roughly 10,000 employees worldwide, manages key foreign aid and development programs. Coons, along with other Democrats, believes cutting the agency will hurt humanitarian missions and allow China to step in where the US pulls out.
Jeanne Shaheen, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying that merging USAID into the State Department without congressional approval would violate the law.
Meanwhile, “Elon’s not making decisions on his own,” Trump said. “He’s finding tremendous waste, but I’m the one who decides what happens next.”
Elon’s role also raises questions about conflicts of interest. His companies, Tesla and SpaceX, have benefited from billions in federal contracts. Critics argue that giving Elon access to federal financial systems could blur the line between public service and corporate gain.
