World’s wealthiest man Elon Musk has been entrusted with federal cost-cutting while his businesses have collected a reported $38 billion in government funds—including millions loaned to Tesla when it was struggling

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• Elon Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX have benefited from government contracts and regulatory credits. Still, he is charged with slashing government spending and jobs, recusing himself when a conflict of interest is present. A reported $465 million loan from the Energy Department to Tesla—that Musk personally fought for—helped him navigate the company through difficult days. 

President Donald Trump entrusted the richest man in the world to cut costs for the federal government after he backed him throughout the election. The online tracker for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) claims its “total estimated savings are $65 billion, which is a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”