In a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday afternoon, President Donald Trump praised his whirlwind first four weeks in office, citing “flagrant scams” discovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency as examples.
“I signed an order establishing the Department of Government Efficiency—you’ve probably never heard of it—which is now combating government waste, fraud, and abuse. “And Elon is doing an excellent job,” Trump said Saturday at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Centre in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital. “He’s doing a great job.”
Musk is leading DOGE as investigators scrutinise various federal agencies in an effort to reduce government spending and combat fraud. DOGE’s work has become a lightning rod for criticism among Democratic lawmakers and government employees, who have filed a number of lawsuits seeking to halt the investigations and audits.
“Here are some of the most obvious scams that, for example, they’ve spent money on, and we’ve been able to recover a significant portion of it. He stated that a consultant on environmental, social, and investment issues in Africa will be paid $520 million.
“$25 million to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behaviour in Colombia. This is Colombia in South America, not Columbia University. Of course, it could be worse. Forty million will be used to improve sedentary migrants’ social and economic inclusion.
“42 million for social and behavioural change in Uganda. Ten million for medical male circumcision in Mozambique. “Why are we going to Mozambique to perform circumcisions?” Trump inquired, before going on to list a number of other costly taxpayer-funded initiatives discovered by DOGE.
CPAC is an annual conference of conservative lawmakers, leaders, and voters that began on Wednesday and will conclude Saturday following Trump’s speech.
Earlier in the day, Trump posted a message on his Truth Social platform urging Musk to “get more aggressive” with his DOGE efforts.
“Will do, Mr. President!” Musk responded just a few hours before Trump’s CPAC address.
Will do, Mr. President! pic.twitter.com/2VMS2wY7mw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Musk later added on X, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
“We have a very corrupt group of people in this country, and we’re finding them out,” Trump said during his speech. “We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce.”
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025
Trump said he and Musk will travel to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to ensure that the United States Bullion Depository still holds a reported $425 billion in government gold. The Trump administration and Republican allies have called for greater transparency regarding the vault.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the vault in 1943, and Treasury Secretary William Simon opened it to journalists and lawmakers in 1974. During the first Trump administration, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, inspected the vault.
“We’re also heading to Fort Knox. I’m going with Elon. And would anyone want to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still present. “We want to see,” Trump stated.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible? We open it up, and this Fort Knox contains nothing. It’s just solid granite five feet thick. To open the front door, you will need six musclemen.
I don’t think they have any windows. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we opened it and there was no gold inside? So we’re going to open the doors and take a look. And if there’s 27 tonnes of gold, we’ll be overjoyed,” he continued.
“I don’t know how the hell we’ll measure it, but that’s OK.”
This week marked the end of Trump’s first full month in the White House, during which he issued a flurry of executive orders and actions.
He took a victory lap for his whirlwind first month, touting in his speech the administration’s work to end the “weaponization” of the government under the previous Biden administration, his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign trading partners, and celebrating the deportation of illegal immigrants from communities across the country.
“We’re liberating communities like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world,” Trump told reporters.
“We are rescuing Americans whose jobs have been stolen, wages have been robbed, and their way of life has been completely destroyed. And, under the Trump administration, our country will not become a dumping ground.”
