The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, said that cuts carried out by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency “need to be done.”
Dimon, a fellow billionaire, agreed with Musk that the U.S. government is “inefficient” but refused to give what he said was a “binary” response over whether he supports the way DOGE has gone about aggressively gutting federal agencies.
“The government is inefficient, not very competent, and needs a lot of work,” Dimon told CNBC’s Leslie Picker. “It’s not just waste and fraud, it’s outcomes.”
He added that DOGE’s purge of federal agencies “needs to be done,” and likened it to when former presidents Bill Clinton and G.W. Bush attempted to cut the workforce.
“Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change?” Dimon questioned. “It’s not just about the deficit, it’s about building the right policies and procedures and the government we deserve.”
Dimon said he believed that if Musk and his DOGE staffers go too far or do anything that’s illegal, “the courts will stop it.”
“I’m hoping it’s quite successful,” he added.
President Donald Trump defended DOGE on Monday following the recent controversies surrounding Musk.
Musk faced heavy backlash following an email the Office of Personnel Management sent out, which appeared to be mandated by the billionaire, demanding federal workers respond with five bullet points detailing what they accomplished last week.
If workers did not respond, they risked termination, Musk said in a post on X Friday but walked back the threat Monday.
“The radical left, or whoever it may be, starts screaming about the Constitution, but has nothing to do with the Constitution,” Trump said. “It has to do with fairness to this country. It has to do with being ripped off.”
Meanwhile, Americans’ support for Musk and DOGE could be waning after a new poll indicates that the majority disapprove of his cost-cutting frenzy.
The recent upheaval and drama, coupled with granting DOGE staffers unprecedented access to sensitive and confidential data belonging to Americans, appears to have gone too far, according to the results of a Washington Post–Ipsos poll.
When asked whether respondents approved or disapproved of the job that Musk is doing within the federal government, a net 34 percent approve compared to 49 that disapprove.
The poll, carried out February 13 – 18, found that 52 percent disapprove of Musk shutting down federal programs that he deems unnecessary, compared to 26 who approve.
Concern was high when respondents were asked specifically about the access Musk’s team had been given to some federal government databases containing information on Social Security, Medicare and taxes.
The poll found that 63 percent are concerned by this compared to 34 percent who said they are not.
