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Sunday, November 15, 2026Nov 15

Opinion: The mythologies and the truth about Elon Musk and USAID

Photo/Alex Brandon/The Associated Press / Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump meets with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington.
Photo/Alex Brandon/The Associated Press / Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump meets with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington.

Here are some of the untruths told about Elon Musk and DOGE:

› “Musk has no right to cut USAID.” Elon Musk and his team are not cutting any federal programs.

They are auditors. They were given legal authority under a presidential executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Its mandate is to identify waste, abuse, fraud and irrelevance in the federal budget at a time when the U.S. is $37 trillion in debt.

The agency will expire on July 4, 2026.