Elon Musk appeared at President Donald Trumpâs first cabinet meeting of his second term Wednesday to talk about what the billionaire was doing with DOGE, the group thatâs currently dismantling the federal government in an illegal powerplay that circumvents Congress. And while Musk repeated a line heâs said previously about how he would inevitably make mistakes while cutting trillions from the budget, there was another moment where he accidentally revealed heâs unilaterally choosing what gets funded or not.
âI should say we will make mistakes. We wonât be perfect. But when we make mistakes, weâll fix it very quickly,â Musk said.
The billionaire oligarch then gave his example of a âmistakeâ that was corrected, which was extremely revealing.
âSo for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention,â Musk said. âI think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately. And there was no interruption. But we do need to move quickly if weâre to achieve a $1 trillion deficit reduction in financial year 2026.â
Whether he knows it or not, Musk was admitting that he was making the decisions about what should get funding in a completely arbitrary way. While it may seem obvious that Ebola prevention should be funded, he hasnât been elected or confirmed to make that decision. His mandate from President Trump as a âspecial government employeeâ is ostensibly to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. But everything DOGE has presented publicly to cut is just something Musk didnât like, not something that was an example of waste, fraud, or abuse.
Congress very famously has the power of the purse and created agencies like USAID to distribute foreign aid around the world. And if an unelected billionaire can just come in and decide what gets funded, thatâs simply not the legal way of doing it.
What makes Muskâs claims all the more galling is that at least one expert in the field of Ebola says the billionaire isnât even accurately representing what happened. Craig Spencer, a doctor who works at Brown University School of Public Health and is an Ebola survivor, wrote on X about how Musk wasnât really telling the truth about what happened now that funds have been drastically cut for public health.
âOn January 29, Uganda reported an Ebola outbreak. Normally the U.S. wouldâve very quickly sent one of our Ebola experts to help the response. But this time, we didnât. Because we couldnât. Because this administration wouldnât let them go right when this outbreak was declared,â Spencer wrote.
âAnd normally the U.S. wouldâve helped set up border screening and other measures on the ground,â Spencer continued. âBut this time, we didnât. Normally, we wouldâve spoke with the WHO about helping end the outbreak. But this time, we didnât. Because CDC staff werenât even allowed to talk to them.â
Spencer even says that a colleague in Uganda tried to call the White House about the outbreak and wasnât able to reach anyone.
âYou know who does âEbola preventionâ here in the U.S.? The CDC,â Spencer wrote. âHundreds of these frontline experts lost their jobs last week as part of indiscriminate âcost savingâ firings. More cuts are expected. USAID has long supported Ebola response efforts overseas. Not no more.â
So, it's NOT true to say 'one of things we accidentally cancelled very briefly was Ebola prevention' and that it was quickly restoredâŠ
Because you've hobbled or directly dismantled the response structures needed to end Ebola outbreaks abroad and protect us here in the U.S.
â Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) February 26, 2025
Musk spoke for about 10 minutes, according to a livestream on YouTube, and talked about the ways in which Trump had told him to be aggressive in firing people. Itâs unclear how many people have been laid off from the federal government so far, but probationary employees have been the first to be let go and the Associated Press reported on Wednesday plans have been drawn up to fire more by March 13.
Aside from Musk, the cabinet meeting also touched on other topics, like Trumpâs plan to abandon the EB-5 visa in favor of what heâs calling a âgold cardâ that would allow someone whoâs willing to pay $5 million to essentially buy a green card to have legal residence in the country.
Trump also brought up his idea that Canada should become Americaâs â51st state,â an aggressively stupid threat against a long-time ally. The president also made the ridiculous claim that the European Union âwas formed to screw the United States.â
Several lawsuits have been brought against Musk and Trump for the way that theyâre currently destroying the federal government. But it remains to be seen whether those lawsuits will be worth anything. Trumpâs Justice Department continually ignores court orders in âbrazen defianceâ of the rule of law. And since federal courts donât have their own people with guns to enforce the law, Trump and his goons can just continue doing what they do.
