Members of billionaire Elon Musk's so-called government efficiency team have arrived at the Pentagon amid unprecedented incursions at other agencies across the federal government, but on Wednesday had yet to access the military's vast systems and data.
A defense official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly on the matter said that members of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, were conducting onboarding procedures like getting IT access set up this week. Musk's team of young aides with tech backgrounds has already accessed federal databases holding the sensitive information of millions of Americans, slashed agencies without Congress' consent, and triggered at least 11 lawsuits.
Musk and President Donald Trump have called the incursions part of cost-cutting measures, but with little oversight and transparency, it remains unclear how the sensitive data is being protected and whether the activity is legal. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters last week that he welcomed Musk and his team and that he believed they could find "billions of dollars" in savings within the military. On Friday, news outlets reported that DOGE officials had their first meetings at the Pentagon.
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It is not clear what systems or databases the DOGE team will be granted access to as part of its work. At other agencies, the Trump administration has been secretive about what type of access Musk and his team were given, and the president brushed aside concerns over conflicts of interest for Musk, whose companies have billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government, including the Defense Department.
The DoD, with its roughly $850 billion budget, is the largest federal agency and holds much of the U.S.' most sensitive national defense information. It also includes more than 2 million service members, as well as facilities and programs at bases across the country and overseas that support them and their families.
As the team was getting ready to get started, The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Hegseth also ordered the Pentagon to develop plans for cutting 8% from the defense budget every year for the next five years.
The effort to cut government spending by Musk, the world's richest man, has led to deep and brutal cuts that have gutted agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created to protect Americans from unfair financial practices by banks and other financial institutions. The effort has also led to numerous court challenges and raised grave concerns from critics about its constitutionality.
The prospect of Musk and his team combing through the Pentagon budget also raises questions about how they will deal with conflicts of interests since the Defense Department is deeply connected to Musk and his companies.
Specifically, the U.S. government has paid Musk's company SpaceX billions in federal contracts -- around $17 billion since 2015 -- according to a government website that tracks federal spending.
Musk's space launch company has earned more than $5 billion in contracts just from the Defense Department since 2008, with a huge majority being spent by the Air Force on launch services.
Neither Hegseth nor Trump expressed concern about the conflicts of interest in allowing a major defense contractor into Pentagon systems to access data and manipulate spending.
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity that aired Sunday, Musk simply assured Hannity: "I'll recuse myself."
Trump followed up by assuring Hannity that Musk "won't be involved" in any conflicts, without explaining how any official oversight would be handled and why Congress, which authorizes the defense budget, was not being consulted.
The pair did not say that any outside agency or authority would be involved in verifying the claims, but Trump did seem to acknowledge the possibility of Musk taking actions that would benefit him and his electric vehicle business Tesla.
"I said, 'Do the right thing' -- where they're cutting way back on the electric vehicle subsidies," Trump said.
Despite Musk's promises and claims to transparency, last week the White House told reporters that the billionaire will not be filing a public financial disclosure, allowing the full scope of his financial interests to remain hidden.
Related: 'We Welcome DOGE': Hegseth Says Musk Can Find Billions of Dollars in Pentagon Cuts
