"Trump Becomes Musk's Puppet... Coup Occurring in Administration"

President Donald Trump dismissed the 'overreach controversy' related to Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who is leading government spending cuts. Instead, he defended Musk and supported DOGE's aggressive actions. Keya Chatterjee of the nonprofit 'FreeDC' claimed in an ABC interview that "the president has become Musk's puppet" and that a "coup is occurring in the administration."

According to AP, when asked about Musk's overreach controversy on the 3rd (local time), President Trump said, "Musk has the authority to point out potential issues with federal spending" and positively evaluated DOGE's achievements, stating "they have already discovered enormous waste."

Since the inauguration of Trump's second administration on the 20th of last month (local time), Musk's DOGE has been accessing key data and authorities of various federal agencies, investigating internal structures and budget expenditures, and conducting massive personnel and spending cuts.

In particular, in recent days, DOGE has been criticized for overreach after accessing confidential information from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to abolish it and obtaining access to the Treasury's payment system, which controls the federal budget expenditure of $5 trillion annually.

Access to the Treasury's payment system, which handles sensitive information for millions of Americans receiving pensions, tax refunds, and salaries from the federal government, has historically been strictly controlled. Musk, seemingly aware of this controversy, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "The only way to stop fraud and waste of taxpayers' money is to follow the payment flow and review suspicious transactions."

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren announced that she sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Besent expressing extreme concern over Musk's access to the Treasury system. Senator Warren criticized, "It appears that a very sensitive system, responsible for the personal information of millions of Americans and the core functions of the government, has been handed over to an unelected billionaire and numerous unqualified individuals working under him."

On this day, Keya Chatterjee of the nonprofit 'FreeDC', who protested in front of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) where the DOGE team resides, claimed in an ABC interview that "the president has become Musk's puppet" and that a "coup is occurring in the administration."

Despite this controversy, President Trump stated, "I think Elon is doing a good job," praising him as "capable of cost-cutting and a very smart person." He added, "Sometimes there are things we don't agree on, and it doesn't go the way he wants, but he is doing a good job and is very diligent in cutting our federal budget."

Reporter Kang Kyung-joo qurasoha@hankyung.com