Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., defended the work that Elon Musk is doing in President Donald Trump's administration, telling Newsmax on Tuesday that Americans don't want "waste, abuse, and fraud" in the federal government.
Meuser pushed back on "tone-deaf" Democrats who are on the wrong side of the issue in their protestations of Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, which has a charter of purging at least $1 trillion in waste from the federal government.
"Well, they keep on saying he's not elected; there are thousands of people in the federal government that are not elected that are in positions of authority and in the same class … that Elon Musk is," Meuser told "National Report." "Look, Elon Musk is draining the swamp, if you will; President Trump is the leader in draining the swamp, in removing things that are completely unaccountable, completely wasteful."
"And there are a lot more; the list goes on," Meuser added. "I mean, I've got bills for waste, abuse, and fraud that are not yet making the impact that they will. And I mean $100 billion worth of impact."
Meuser reacted to last week's demonstration by hundreds of protesters, including several prominent congressional Democrats, who rallied outside the Treasury Department to demand an end to what they called Musk's "corporate heist" of the federal government.
"The swamp is fighting back. It's unbelievable. I mean, they're so tone-deaf. This is what the American people want. They don't want waste, abuse, and fraud in their government," Meuser said. "They saw what USAID was doing. They're seeing that $59 million went to apartment buildings, luxury hotels for illegal immigrants in New York."
"The federal government is being audited. And we are going to eliminate the waste and deliver return on investment savings and funding for the American economy, for the American people," he added.
Meuser also commented on the tariffs Trump imposed on steel and aluminum imports on Monday.
"The president has always said he wants to be fair. He's not trying to be harsh. If there's a 20% tariff on us and we've been at 2%, we've been taken advantage of. That's going to end," Meuser said.
"So there's a plan here that is in line with growing our economy, growing the North American economy, growing everybody's economy. But we're not going to be on the losing end of things. We're going to be equivalent — if not on the winning end of things — because that's where Americans want us to be," he added.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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