Elon Musk called on February 13 for the United States to “delete entire agencies” from the federal government as part of his push under President Donald Trump to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.
Musk offered a wide-ranging survey via a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of what he described as the priorities of the Trump administration interspersed with multiple references to “thermonuclear warfare” and the possible dangers of artificial intelligence.
“We really have here rule of the bureaucracy as opposed to rule of the people — democracy,” Musk said, wearing a black T-shirt that read: “Tech Support.” He also joked that he was the “White House’s tech support,” borrowing from his profile on the social platform X, which he owns.
“I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”
While Musk has spoken to the summit in the past, his appearance on February 13 cames as he has consolidated control over large swaths of the government with Trump’s blessing since assuming leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. That has included sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
He also offered unsupported claims that DOGE’s work was being shared on its website and on X, the social media platform owned by Musk. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the postings on X often lack many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access.
The White House has also been moving to limit independent oversight. The inspector general for the U.S. Agency for International Development was fired a day after warning that it had become nearly impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds after DOGE began dismantling the agency.
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” said Musk. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
Musk has positioned himself as a shadow president, using Trump as a convenient mouthpiece while he consolidated control over the levers of government. While Trump has basked in the spotlight, soaking up both the praise and the outrage, Musk has been the one steering policy behind the scenes, shaping a federal government that serves his interests.
Pushing the “delete entire agencies” was never about efficiency but gutting the very institutions that hold billionaires like him accountable. By dismantling regulatory agencies, public programs, and oversight bodies, Musk expects to ensure that taxpayer money flows into the projects that benefit his empire, from privatized infrastructure to defense contracts disguised as “efficiency initiatives.”
The strategy is calculated. Trump provides the spectacle, keeping the media and public fixated on the latest outburst or scandal, while Musk operates in the background, embedding himself in the highest levels of power.
DOGE has become a vehicle for corporate control, slashing protections, sidelining career officials, and reshaping the federal government into a tool for private industry — his private industry.
By the time the public fully understands the extent of his influence, the federal government will be smaller, weaker, and more vulnerable to exploitation — exactly the kind of system that allows a billionaire with unchecked power to reign supreme.
Musk’s new role imbued his comments with more weight beyond being the world’s wealthiest person through his investments in SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla.
His remarks also offered a more isolationist view of American power in the Middle East, where the U.S. has fought wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“A lot of attention has been on USAID for example,” Musk said, referring to Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “There’s like the National Endowment for Democracy. But I’m like, ‘Okay, well, how much democracy have they achieved lately?'”
He added that the U.S. under Trump is “less interested in interfering with the affairs of other countries.”
There are “times the United States has been kind of pushy in international affairs, which may resonate with some members of the audience,” Musk said, speaking to the crowd in the UAE, an autocratically ruled nation of seven sheikhdoms.
“Basically, America should mind its own business rather than push for regime change all over the place,” he said.
He also noted the Trump administration’s focus on eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion work, at one point linking it to AI.
“If hypothetically, AI is designed for DEI, you know, diversity at all costs, it could decide that there’s too many men in power and execute them,” Musk said.
On AI, Musk said he believed X’s newly updated AI chatbot, Grok 3, would be ready in March, calling it at one point “kind of scary.”
He criticized Sam Altman’s management of OpenAI, which Musk just led a $97.4 billion takeover bid for, describing it as akin to a nonprofit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest from becoming a “lumber company that chops down the trees.”
A court filing on February 12 on Musk’s behalf in the OpenAI dispute said he would withdraw his bid if the ChatGPT maker dropped its plan to convert into a for-profit company. Musk also announced plans for a “Dubai Loop” project in line with his work in the Boring Company, which is digging tunnels in Las Vegas to speed transit.
A later statement from Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, said the city-state and the Boring Company “will explore the development” of a 17-kilometer underground network with 11 stations that could transport over 20,000 passengers an hour. He offered no financial terms for the deal.
“It’s going to be like a wormhole,” Musk promised. “You just wormhole from one part of the city — boom — and you’re out in another part of the city.”
