'It's just common sense' - Elon Musk says basic controls are needed at Treasury in front of Trump

Diario As

11/2/2025

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00:00So, you know, that's the case where, like, I think they're probably dead, it's my guess.

00:05If there's not a good feedback loop from the people to the government,

00:10and if you have rule of the bureaucrat, if the bureaucracy is in charge,

00:15then what meaning does democracy actually have?

00:19If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives,

00:25in the form of the President and the Senate and the House,

00:29then we don't live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy.

00:33So it's incredibly important that we close that feedback loop, we fix that feedback loop,

00:37and that the public, the public's elected representatives,

00:41the President, the House and the Senate, decide what happens,

00:44as opposed to a large, unelected bureaucracy.

00:48It takes a lot to get there. They actually are not paid, which currently they are paid.

00:54And they've also got to address the deficit.

00:55So we've got a $2 trillion deficit, and if we don't do something about this deficit,

01:01the country's going bankrupt.

01:03I mean, it's really astounding that the interest payments alone on national debt

01:10exceed the Defense Department budget, which is shocking,

01:14because we spend a lot of money on defense,

01:17and if that just keeps going, we're essentially going to bankrupt the country.

01:21So, what I really want to say is, it's not optional for us to reduce the federal expenses,

01:27it's essential.

01:34We do find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy

01:44who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars,

01:48but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth,

01:51while they are in that position, which is what happened to USAID.

01:56We're just curious as to where it came from.

01:58Maybe they're very good at investing, in which case we should take their investment advice, perhaps.

02:04But there seems to be mysteriously, they get wealthy.

02:08Why? Where does it come from?

02:11And I think the reality is that they're getting wealthier at the taxpayer expense.

02:15That's the honest truth of it.

02:18So, we're looking at, say, Treasury, for example.

02:27Basic controls that should be in place, that are in place in any company,

02:33such as making sure that any given payment has a payment categorization code,

02:37that there is a comment field that describes the payment,

02:40and that if a payment is on the do not pay list, that you don't actually pay it.

02:45None of those things are true currently.

02:48Obviously, we want to make sure that people who deserve to receive Social Security do receive it.

02:54We're really just talking about adding common sense controls that should be present,

02:59that haven't been present.

03:02So you say, well, how could such a thing arise?

03:04That seems crazy.

03:06When you understand that really everything is geared towards complaint minimization,

03:12then you understand the motivations.

03:15So if people receive money, they don't complain, obviously.

03:18But if people don't receive money, they do complain.

03:22And the fraudsters complain the loudest and the fastest.

03:26So, then when you understand that, then it makes sense.

03:30Oh, that's why everything just, they approve all the payments at Treasury.

03:35Because if you approve all the payments, you don't get complaints.

03:40There needs to be a lot of people working for the federal government.

03:45It's just common sense.

03:48It's not draconian or radical, I think.

03:52It's really just saying, let's look at each of these expenditures and say,

03:56is this actually in the best interest of the people?

03:59And if it is, it's approved. If it's not, we should think about it.

04:03So, um...

04:05If people can retire, you know, with full benefits and everything, that would be good.

04:11You're detractors, Mr. Musk, including a lot of Democrats.

04:16I have detractors?

04:18You do, sir.

04:19I don't believe it.

04:20Say that you're orchestrating a hostile takeover of government

04:23and doing it in a non-transparent way.

04:26What's your response to that criticism?

04:28Well, first of all, you couldn't ask for a stronger mandate from the public.

04:33The public voted.

04:36We have a majority of the public voting for President Trump.

04:41We won the House. We won the Senate.

04:45The people voted for major government reform.

04:50There should be no doubt about that.

04:52That was on the campaign.

04:54The President spoke about that at every rally.

04:57The people voted for major government reform.

04:59And that's what people are going to get.

05:01They're going to get what they voted for.

05:03And a lot of times, people don't get what they voted for.

05:06But in this presidency, they are going to get what they voted for.

05:09And that's what democracy is all about.

05:17Mr. Musk, the White House says that you will identify and excuse yourself

05:20from any conflicts of interest that you may have.

05:23Does that mean that you are, in effect, policing yourself?

05:26What are the checks and balances that are in place

05:28to ensure that there is accountability and transparency?

05:31Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible.

05:34In fact, we post our actions to the Doge handle on X

05:39and to the Doge website.

05:42So all of our actions are maximally transparent.

05:45In fact, I don't know of a case where an organization

05:49has been more transparent than the Doge organization.

05:53Yeah, so there are sort of checks in place.

05:57So it's not just us going in and doing things.

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