Transcript of Inside Elon Musk’s first 30 days with DOGE

While it was President Trump who was sworn in a month ago today, one of his closest advisors seems to be making almost as many headlines as he does, talking about Elon Musk. Tonight in our ABC News Prime Focus, we take a look at 30 days of so-called efficiency under Elon. Here's our senior political correspondent, Rachel Scott. He's the world's richest man, revolutionizing cars as the CEO of Tesla. We have to lift launching rockets in space as the head of SpaceX, even closing a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Now Elon Musk, setting his sights on the federal government. Elon Musk Which started with record-breaking big dollar donations and campaign shoutouts. Take over, Elon. Yes, take over. Quickly transformed into one of the most powerful positions in President Trump's administration. Billionaire Elon Musk wasn't a candidate in the 2024 race. This is what victory feels like. Yeah. He has never been confirmed by the US Senate. He won't receive a government paycheck. And until about a month ago, the Department of Government Efficiency didn't exist. But with a stroke of a pen on day one of his presidency. This is an order creating and implementing the Department of Governmental Efficiency, known as DOGE.

Okay, that's a big one. Trump making good on his campaign promise. The President giving Musk, the South African-born businessman, the green light to slash federal spending and make key decisions about the future of the United States. The next day, the Office of Personnel Management, which acts as a human resources department for the government, directed agencies to start putting together a list of workers they could easily get rid of. By January 22nd, there was a federal hiring freeze. All agencies were directed to put DEI staff on leave. Employees ordered to remove pronouns from their signatures. Members. Diversity inclusion programs shutterered. The next several days would set off confusion and panic for many workers across the country. A federal funding freeze, leaving programs like Head Start shut out of money despite a court order. And then some 2 million federal workers receiving an email with an offer to resign and be paid through September, a risk being fired. The subject line, fork in the road, the same one Elon must use when he was slashing the workforce at Twitter. In a matter of just 30 days, Doge gained access into at least 15 federal agencies, with eyes on sensitive and personal information of millions of Americans.

The staff around Musk, a group of young engineers moving into the Eisenhower executive office building. Sources say Musk initially wanted an office inside the West Wing, but told people he thought it was too small. Only Congress has the power to eliminate entire agencies, but Musk and his team have proved they still be stripped down. The team showing up at USAID demanding access. Doge was in the building. We took down our pride flags. I took out any books I thought would be incriminating. No one was talking. As the signs outside the humanitarian agency were coming down, workers over at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were told to stay home, some showing up anyway, demanding to be let in. Let us work, let us work. Cfpb, the The government's consumer watchdog, created after the 2008 financial crisis and housing crash, was designed to protect American families from unfair and deceptive practices. Their headquarters now closed. All work stopped. You show up to work on Monday morning. I had an agenda of things that I was ready to do to fight for American consumers, and to be told that I'm not supposed to do that is heartbreaking. Seventy-five thousand workers taking the administration up on the offer to resign, but some, like nick Detter, who worked as a natural resource specialist, say they accepted within the time frame and were fired anyway, something the administration acknowledges has happened by mistake.

I would never say that there's no room for improvement efficiency in the federal government, but In my experience over the last month with this whole thing, that's not what this has been. After that buy-out offer closed, federal workers started receiving emails and calls like this. You will receive your termination notice via email shortly Justine Ballou worked for the US Department of Agriculture up until last week, and just 72 hours out from delivering her baby, she was fired. I was three days away from my due date on Friday when I got that termination letter. And I had my baby yesterday right on time, and paid maternity leave is off the table, and my health insurance is set to lapse at the end of this month. Some workers Officers let go by a mistake. The administration reversing course, working to rehire workers who manage the country's nuclear weapons, and inspection officers who worked on containing the bird flu outbreak, which is sending egg prices soaring. But other sweeping cuts were intended. Staff working on nutrition and food safety, reviewing potentially unsafe food ingredients, were fired. Training programs at the CDC for young graduates, the next generation of scientists and doctors, eliminated.

One union for FAA workers saying maintenance mechanics and aviation safety assistance were let go, too. And now questions about transparency. As a special government employee, Musk's financial disclosure form will not be made public. Spacex and Tesla, the companies he Jones have been awarded $18 billion over the last decade in federal contracts, including for agencies the President has asked Musk to look into. If you have received billions of dollars in contracts from the Pentagon and the President's directing you to look into the Department of Defense. Is that a conflict of interest? We are going to do at the President's request. Does that present a conflict of interest for you? No, because you'd have to look at the individual contract and say, First of all, I'm not the one filing the contract. It's people at SpaceX. The President telling me in the oval office, he won't let that happen. And if we thought that we would not let him do that segment or look in that area, if we thought there was a lack of transparency or a conflict of interest. But Trump has fired independent watchdogs. Robert Storch was one of them. He was in charge of tracking waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon.

When you just wholesale fire people like that without giving any reasons for doing it, it sends a message that that oversight, that productive oversight, is it really valued? The total savings of Doge so far are unclear, but their work has set the stage for one of the biggest modern shakeups of the federal government. And the promise promise of more shakeups still to come. Our thanks to Rachael Scott for that report.