Musk’s role ‘an unbelievable opportunity’ for US government: Rep. Turner

Republican Rep. Mike Turner on Sunday refuted claims that Elon Musk’s task force’s massive overhaul of the federal government does not constitute a federal crisis.

“Elon Musk goes about his job, which is a very important job, I mean the fact that we have Elon Musk looking from the private sector into the public sector, advising the president in ways that we can find ways to to reduce overall spending, to get this curve down is incredibly important and an unbelievable opportunity for for our government,” Turner said in an exclusive interview with Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”

President Donald Trump tasked Musk with cutting federal spending through the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Since Trump took office, Musk’s controversial task force has led mass federal worker layoffs, slashed many programs and agencies.

“In this instance, we have Elon Musk and the president of the United States going over to the bureaucracy and saying, we’re going to tame you. We’re going to pull you back under the executive branch,” Turner said. “We’re going to look at ways in which we can find savings, and we’re going to bring this spending curve down.”

Turner said that DOGE’s drastic cuts to the federal government will assist in meeting federal spending goals. The federal government is currently operating under a continuing resolution that was negotiated in December. The resolution is set to expire in March, without a new deal, the government will shutdown.

Turner said: “This administration is taking an immediate assessment of where are we spending our funds and where do we need to spend them? And in order to do so, they need to take a stop, they need to take a critical view and let the American public know that their monies are being spent around the world, and they need to determine how they need to be spent in the way that advances U.S. interests and do so in a way that we can balance the budget.”

DOGE’s purge of the federal government resulted in the shuttering of USAID. The Trump administration placed all USAID direct-hire employees on administrative leave effective Friday, Feb. 7. This created uncertainty worldwide because USAID is responsible for dispatching humanitarian aid. Turner said that this represents a fiscal and policy review.

Turner said: “We’ve had USAID that has been separate from, really, the ambassador structure and our embassy structure. Commerce has been separate. DOD has been separate. You know, taking a view where we, how do we merge these back so we have one voice in foreign policy.”

Turner also emphasized the importance of USAID’s work.

“USAID is not a criminal enterprise, and people who work for the government have an important job to do, and they need to be honored,” he said.

Current and former officials warn that the dismantling of USAID could create a global vacuum, which could be filled by U.S. adversaries, like China. However, Turner said that he does not believe China will act.

“They’re not going to come in and start providing aid of this nature. They don’t have the heart for it,” he said. “They don’t have the goals and objectives for it. This is not what they do.”

Additionally , on Tuesday, Trump announced in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip. Trump outlined a scenario where Palestinians would be relocated, and the United States would own and rebuild Gaza.” Experts warn that rhetoric like this could rattle the fragile ceasefire deal. Turner said Trump’s language does not worry him, but it may be distracting.

“I think it does pose the challenge of focusing on the fact that Hamas and the Palestinians and the terrorist structure that’s there needs to be dismantled, that Israel does deserve and need a peaceful structure.” said Turner.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.