Musk calls for US to ‘delete entire agencies’ from federal government

Elon Musk calls to “delete entire agencies” from the United States’ federal government as part of his push under US President Donald Trump to radically cut spending and restructure its priorities.

Musk offers a wide-ranging survey via a videocall to the World Governments Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of what he describes 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 says, wearing a black T-shirt that read: “Tech Support.” He also jokes that he is 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 says. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.”