Elon Musk trains DOGE chainsaw on Fed, flags HQ rebuild

Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday he is considering sending his government efficiency team to the Federal Reserve (Fed) , citing a costly renovation of the central bank's Washington, DC, headquarters as an example of potential government waste.

"Since at the end of the day, this is all taxpayer money, we certainly-we should definitely-look to see if indeed the Federal Reserve is spending two and a half billion dollars on their interior designer," he told reporters at the White House.

The Fed's multiyear headquarters renovation has ballooned to a $2.5 billion price tag as of 2022, a figure that the central bank pinned to higher costs of building materials and labor since the project started in 2021, right as inflation began to soar. "That's an eyebrow raiser," Musk said.


Musk spoke Wednesday in the White House's Roosevelt Room, just hours before the Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla Inc's board had initiated talks with a search firm to find the EV maker's next CEO. Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm later called the report "absolutely false" in a post on X.

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The event, ostensibly to tout the successes of his Department of Government Efficiency effort, came just a week after Musk told investors he'd be pulling back from his time in Washington to devote more time to the carmaker amid declining sales and a falling stock price at Tesla. The Fed doesn't rely on congressional money to cover its operations-instead funding itself from income generated by securities held on its balance sheet. But the central bank has run a deficit in recent years as interest expenses have risen, drawing Musk's scrutiny.

Musk's suggestion is the latest example of how President Donald Trump is aiming to exert more control over the independent central bank, a move that could rattle investors who count on the Fed to keep inflation in check.