‘Competency, trust’: Musk pledges DOGE will cut U.S. budget deficit by half

Basic controls are needed at the U.S. Treasury, Elon Musk said on Tuesday, after a U.S. district judge on Saturday blocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury’s payment systems. “What are the two ingredients that are really necessary in order to cut the budget deficit in half from $2 trillion to $1 trillion? And it’s really two things: competence and caring,” Musk said, adding that transparency was needed to build trust.