Elon Musk suggested Wednesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may investigate spending at the Federal Reserve.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who was tapped by President Donald Trump to head the organization tasked with cutting federal spending, told multiple news outlets during a wide-ranging interview at the White House that the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of three of its Washington, D.C., office buildings was an “eyebrow raiser.”
“Since at the end of the day, this is all taxpayer money, I think we certainly — we should definitely — look to see if indeed the Federal Reserve is spending $2.5 billion on their interior designer,” Musk said, according to multiple reports.
The Fed does not rely on funding from congressional appropriations of taxpayer dollars. Instead, “its operations are financed primarily from the interest earned on the securities it owns — securities acquired in the course of the Federal Reserve’s open market operations,” according to a Fed publication.
However, the Fed has come under scrutiny in recent years for running at an operating loss. In 2024 and 2023, it reported operating losses of $77.6 billion and $114.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Wednesday’s media session at the White House marked a rare in-person interview for Musk, who typically prefers to share his views on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he purchased in 2022.
Musk has taken to X on multiple occasions to criticize the Fed.
“All aspects of the government must be fully transparent and accountable to the people,” Musk wrote on February 9. “No exceptions, including, if not especially, the Federal Reserve.”
On March 2, Musk posted, “The Fed is absurdly overstaffed,” in response to an X user who had declared, “End the Fed.”
While Musk did not suggest to reporters Wednesday that DOGE may attempt to cut staff at the Fed, any government intervention into the Federal Reserve’s finances would almost certainly rattle financial markets, as the Fed’s role in setting U.S. monetary policy relies on its ability to operate independently of political forces in Washington.
On April 21, after Trump attacked Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on social media, calling him a “major loser” and “Mr. Too Late” for not lowering interest rates, equity markets fell sharply, with the S&P 500 index declining 3.4% during intraday trading.
The Trump administration weighed in on Fed policy again Thursday, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying during a Fox News interview that falling Treasury yields are an indication that the Fed should cut rates.
“We are seeing that two-year (Treasury) rates are now below fed funds rates,” Bessent said. “So that’s a market signal that they think the Fed should be cutting.”
And Trump himself had the Fed on his mind during a White House event Wednesday.
“Mortgage rates are actually down slightly even though I have a guy in the Fed that I’m not a huge fan of,” Trump said, referring to Powell. “He should reduce interest rates. I think I understand interest a lot better than him, because I’ve had to really use interest rates.”
