‘Waste, fraud and abuse, unfortunately, is alive and well in America,’ Peter Navarro said.
A top White House adviser has said that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) work will likely continue amid a spat between its former chief, Elon Musk, and President Donald Trump.
When asked about DOGE’s future, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro said that the public feud between the two is unlikely to impact the task force, which was established via an executive order earlier this year.
“Waste, fraud and abuse, unfortunately, is alive and well in America, and the DOGE folks here, they’re good folks,” Navarro told reporters at the White House on Friday.
“When you work with them and bring to them the institutional knowledge of how bureaucracies work and what’s important in a bureaucracy and what’s not, when you wed that, it’s a great thing,” he said. “So we’re happy.”
Regarding Musk, Navarro said he was “a special government employee with an expiration date.”
The Tesla CEO departed the administration last week after 130 days, holding a joint Oval Office news conference with Trump.
In the coming days, however, Musk has frequently criticized the Trump-endorsed One Big Beautiful Bill in posts on his social media platform X, saying at one point that it is a “disgusting abomination.”
Trump had initially stayed quiet while Musk campaigned to torpedo the bill, but ultimately broke his silence on the criticism from his former adviser and suggested the two may not have a relationship going forward. That prompted Musk to state that it was because of him that Trump and Republicans won in the 2024 elections.
Musk later asserted that Trump’s signature import tariffs would push the United States into a recession and responded “yes” to a post on X saying Trump should be impeached. That would be highly unlikely given that Trump’s Republicans hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.
In response, Trump suggested on Truth Social that he may cut federal funding to Musk’s companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Musk said he would decommission the Dragon spacecraft, before saying he wouldn’t in a separate post on X.
In a sign of a possible detente, Musk wrote, “You’re not wrong,” in response to billionaire investor Bill Ackman saying that Trump and Musk should make peace.
