- President Donald Trump has signaled he is about to unleash Elon Musk and his DOGE team on the Pentagon. Former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig says the Defense Department needs a transformation.
After targeting federal agencies like USAID and the General Services Administration, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is about to take on the Pentagon, according to President Donald Trump.
In a Super Bowl interview, Trump told Fox News that once DOGE digs into the Education Department, the Defense Department—which has an $850 billion budget—will be next.
"Let's check the military," he said in a teaser clip that aired Sunday ahead of the big game. "We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And you know, the people elected me on that."
Similarly, Trump's National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that "everything there seems to cost too much, take too long and deliver too little to the soldiers," while brushing aside questions about potential conflicts of interest with Musk and the defense contracts that SpaceX has.
For decades, multiple administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have tried to reform defense spending, decrying the slow pace of acquisition and high costs while pointing to egregious examples like the infamous $14,000 toilet seat lid.
But even more than cutting costs, Musk and DOGE could improve the Pentagon by making it more efficient, according to Danzig, who served as Navy secretary under President Bill Clinton.
In a Washington Post op-ed on Thursday, he pointed to a "dismal truth" revealed by the Pentagon's effort under the Biden administration to procure cutting-edge drones, noting that it took place outside the usual bureaucratic channels and instead via the Defense Innovation Unit.
Meanwhile, the Navy's shipbuilding systems are stuck in the 20th century, and produced just 12 warships last year while China made 30, he added.
"The tools to change this—most notably software and artificial intelligence—lie at hand," Danzig wrote. "Musk is the great master, not at inventing these technologies but at something equally important, and rarer: applying technology to solve old problems in new ways."
To be sure, he acknowledged steep challenges in getting Musk's personality, management practices, and business interests to fit with the federal government.
But Danzig highlighted his track record revolutionizing the auto industry with EV maker Tesla and the space sector with SpaceX, which has slashed launch costs with reusable boosters that can land autonomously while fielding a workforce that's a fraction of what top contractors have.
"Our national security needs this kind of transformation," he added.
For his part, Musk has already taken aim at the Pentagon's top acquisition program. In a series of posts on X in November, he blasted Lockheed Martin's F-35 and manned fighter jets overall while backing drones as the future of warfare.
Silicon Valley defense startups like Anduril are developing drones while looking to change how the Pentagon develops and buys weapons. Meanwhile, Cerberus Capital Management cofounder and co-CEO Stephen Feinberg has been nominated to be deputy defense secretary.
Wall Street sees big potential for technology, especially AI, in the DOGE era. Data-mining software company Palantir Technologies, which is known for putting its AI-powered platforms to work in the defense and intelligence sectors, in particular is seen as a beneficiary.
"The company sees the world ripe for an AI and technology revolution," Bank of America analysts said in a note on Tuesday. "We see PLTR enabling and leading this revolution in both Commercial and Defense markets."
Correction, Feb. 10, 2025: A previous version of this article misstated Stephen Feinberg's title.
