DUBAI: Elon Musk called Thursday to “delete entire agencies” from the United States' 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 Thursday comes 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’s included sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
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.
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 about two weeks, calling it at one point “kind of scary.” He criticised Sam Altman's management of OpenAI, which Musk just led a USD 97.4 billion takeover bid for, describing it as akin to a nonprofit aimed at saving the Amazon rainforest becoming a "lumber company that chops down the trees.”
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. However, he and the Emirati government official speaking with him offered no immediate details of the plan.
“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.”