Musks Longtime Acquaintance, Democratic Representative Kanna
"Committee Recommendations Expected; Cuts Not Easy"
There is a prospect that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, whose plan to cut jobs and spending across the federal government in the next Donald Trump administration may face setbacks sooner than expected.
Ro Khanna, a prominent 'opponent of defense budget increases' in the U.S. Congress and a Democratic representative from California, said in an interview with political media outlet Politico on the 21st (local time), "I think Elon will be frustrated sooner than expected," predicting that Musk will face strong resistance from Congress during the budget-cutting process.
Rep. Khanna stated, "Many committees have tried to reduce government budget waste so far, but they were merely 'recommendations,'" adding, "(The work of the Department of Government Efficiency) will be a test for Musk." Specifically, he explained, "Let's consider the case of cutting the defense budget. Many members of the relevant congressional committees want to increase defense spending." Having served on the House Armed Services Committee, he added, "The key will be how effectively they can track the waste and abuse by defense contractors."
There is a concern that if the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) remains at the level of an external advisory committee, its binding power over the federal government will be weak, potentially losing momentum for reform.
Rep. Khanna was the only one among the 59 members of the House Armed Services Committee last year to vote against the increase in the defense budget. At that time, he emphasized, "I oppose the inflated defense budget that prioritizes the profits of defense contractors over modern national security strategy and domestic investment."
Recently, he also criticized the wasteful operations of U.S. defense contractors and defense budget increases on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter). In response, Musk expressed agreement, saying, "It seems like it's time for the Department of Government Efficiency to step in," drawing attention. Based in Silicon Valley, Rep. Khanna has known Musk for years. Through this interview, it is interpreted that he aimed to shed light on the difficulties he faced in Congress while pushing for defense budget efficiency and how high and challenging the 'budget efficiency' barrier Musk must overcome is.
Musk, who will head the Department of Government Efficiency in the second Trump administration, claims he can reduce the $2 trillion federal budget and has pledged to reorganize over 400 federal agencies into fewer than 100. According to statistics from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), there are currently about 2.3 million federal employees in the U.S., of which about 70% belong to the military or security-related agencies. In particular, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which operates hundreds of hospitals and clinics for veterans, employs the largest number of general staff at 486,522. The Department of Homeland Security (222,539), the Army (221,037), the Navy (216,537), the Air Force (168,505), the Department of Defense (156,803), the Department of Justice (116,614), the Department of the Treasury (108,869), and the Department of Agriculture (92,072) followed.
Meanwhile, Musk engaged in a brief social media exchange with his longtime rival Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, on the same day. Musk wrote on X, "I heard today in Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos has been telling everyone he meets that Trump will lose the election, so they should sell Tesla and SpaceX stocks." Bezos denied this, saying, "That is not 100% true," to which Musk replied with a smiling emoji, "Then I will correct it." Leading the space company SpaceX, Musk has provoked Bezos, who owns the competing company Blue Origin, several times.
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