President Donald Trump said Friday that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chair Elon Musk is "doing a great job" uncovering areas of the federal government that are ripe for efficiency cuts.
"He's finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste," Trump said, according to The Hill. "You see it with the USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development], but you're going to see it even more so with other agencies and other parts of government.
"He's got a staff that's fantastic; he's wanted to be able to do this for a long time. I think we're going to be very close to balancing budgets for the first time for many years."
Musk's team, tasked by Trump with overhauling the federal government, was granted "read-only" access to Treasury Department payment systems this week, in addition to gutting USAID's workforce of more than 10,000 employees.
DOGE initially chopped the agency's staffers down to fewer than 300, before the administration sent out a notice to USAID workers announcing it planned to keep 611 essential workers.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington set a hearing for Friday afternoon to determine whether to temporarily block the Trump administration from following through on its plans to dismantle USAID and put thousands of its employees around the world on administrative leave at midnight.
According to The Hill, Trump was speaking with reporters alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday when he was asked to comment on the Time magazine cover that showed Musk sitting at his desk in the Oval Office.
"Is Time magazine still in business?" Trump said. "I don't even know that."
Trump in December was named Time's 2024 Person of the Year and rang the New York Stock Exchange's opening bell to celebrate the unveiling of his cover.
He also said on Friday that Musk will answer reporters' questions from the White House podium, as he indicated that the tech billionaire is "not shy."
The White House this week said Musk is authorized as a "special government employee," and Trump acknowledged that they will not always see eye-to-eye.
"He's a big cost-cutter," Trump said. "Sometimes we won't agree with it and we'll not go where he wants to go, but I think he's doing a great job."