Musk: The US Treasury paid scammers and terrorists

The US Treasury approved payments to fraudulent and terrorist groups, businessman Elon Musk said in X, referring to the results of the work of the Department of Public Administration Efficiency (DOGE) headed by him.

"The DOGE team found, among other things, that officials approving payments at the Ministry of Finance were instructed to always approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They have literally never refused a payment in their entire career. Not once," Musk said.

He did not specify which groups he was talking about.

Earlier, The New York Times (NYT), citing sources, reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave several DOGE representatives access to the federal payment system to control and limit government spending. According to the newspaper, in 2023, this system processed information about payments worth more than $ 5 trillion.

The publication noted that it is not yet clear whether the Mask team blocked any payments after gaining access to the system. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon warned that a businessman's access to the system could lead to a conflict of interest, since it contains data on payments to "competitors of companies owned by Mask."

DOGE (the abbreviation is consonant with the name of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, which has long been supported by Musk) was created to optimize government spending and increase government efficiency. The businessman claimed that he plans to reduce the budget by "at least" $ 2 trillion (in fiscal year 2024, US government spending amounted to $ 6.75 trillion).

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy was supposed to be the co-head of DOGE along with Musk, but he eventually turned it down. The Washington Post wrote, citing sources, that there was a split between the entrepreneurs.

Ramaswamy and Musk shared a radical vision of government downsizing, but their strategies for achieving this goal differed and were ultimately incompatible. Ramaswamy studied which government departments could be closed without Congressional approval, and saw DOGE as a non-governmental body similar to a think tank seeking significant changes that could then be codified into legislation.

Musk was not interested in such processes, he believed that DOGE should work as a small organization within the government with access to extremely confidential information, as well as avoiding lawsuits demanding disclosure of the contents of meetings and minutes.