Steve Bannon Rips DOGE's Accounting—'None of This Makes Sense'

Steve Bannon questioned the accounting of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Wednesday, while also taking aim at the agency's billionaire leader Elon Musk.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email on Thursday.

Why It Matters

Bannon has been a staunch Trump ally and leader of the MAGA movement, but has had tension with Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. He has been critical of Musk on a number of issues including his ties to China and some immigration matters around H1-B visas.

What to Know

Bannon has supported the goals of DOGE but called for more transparency of its accounting during a discussion during Semafor's World Economy Summit. He said its accounting doesn't "make sense" given the lack of cuts at the Pentagon.

He said there needs to be a "very specific accounting as what he found as far as fraud goes and waste," signed off by every department head.

"We need to know exactly what he found because we went from $2 trillion a year to $1 trillion to year to $150 billion next year with nothing this year. None of this makes sense," Bannon said. "The cuts you've seen that have been announced are programmatic, whether it's USAID or DOE, that's a totally different thing."

He also said there must be a "letter of certification" that no data of the government or any citizens are held by "anybody" except for the Trump administration or U.S. government in May, before Musk takes a step back from DOGE. The billionaire said during Tesla's earning call this week that he plans to refocus his efforts on his businesses, rather than DOGE, in the near future.

When asked by Semafor's editor-in-chief Ben Smith if he "trusts" Musk to not take data, Bannon responded, "trust but verify."

Bannon still praised DOGE as a "blunt force instrument" that implemented layoffs needed by the administrative state.

"You've got to go to the Pentagon. You can't be serious if you're talking about waste, fraud and abuse in our system, unless you're in the Pentagon, finding out how it really operates," he said.

What People Are Saying

Bannon previously said on his War Room podcast: "Elon said a lot of stuff that none of it's turned out to be accurate. Like where's my $2 trillion cuts? Where's my $1 trillion cuts? Where's my $150 billion cut?"

Musk, during Tesla's earnings call on Tuesday, said: "There's been some blowback for the time that I've been spending in government with the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. I think the work that we're doing there is actually very important for trying to sprain in the insane deficit that is leading our country, the United States, to destruction. And the DOGE team has made a lot of progress in addressing waste and fraud."

What Happens Next

The White House hasn't weighed in on whether they will require a release of DOGE accounting, as Bannon called for, before Musk takes a step back from the task force. Musk also did not provide a specific date he plans to step back and added he would still spend a day or two working for the government.