President Trump said Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency will continue to review the spending of federal agencies, including the Education and Defense departments.

During a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Mr. Trump was asked if Mr. Musk and his staff need access to Americans’ personal information.

“We’re going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value,” he said. “We’re talking about trillions of dollars. It will be in the end trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally.”

He said he was “very proud” of the work the “young [and] smart” staffers have been doing at DOGE.

He noted that DOGE doesn’t need access to people’s information, but “they get it very easily” since there’s not “very good security” in the U.S.

He called spending by the U.S. Agency for International Development  “absolutely obscene.”

“I mean virtually every investment made is a con job,” he said. “There’s nothing of value to anybody.”

When asked if there was anything he has instructed Mr. Musk not to go through, Mr. Trump said that hasn’t been “discussed much.”

“I guess maybe you could say some high intelligence or something,” the president said. “And I’ll do that myself if I have to.”

He said Social Security will be “strengthened” by getting people off the program who shouldn’t be on it.