President Donald Trump has vowed to slash government spending and has tasked DOGE with carrying out that effort, which has seen Musk deploy the vast powers granted to him to restructure and dismantle federal agencies.

"They're going to have broad access, obviously, with all the safeguards on classification," Hegseth said in a video posted on X.

DOGE will work to "find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities -- the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the woke, the climate change BS -- that's not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all," he added, referring to former president Joe Biden.

The unprecedented Musk-led US government cost-cutting drive has raised conflict-of-interest questions, given that many of the targeted agencies, including the Defense Department, have regulatory oversight or other dealings with elements of the world's richest man's businesses.

Hegseth also took aim in the video message at US media reports from the previous day that he had ordered sweeping cuts to the Pentagon budget, saying instead that $50 billion would be spent on different priorities.

"We will move away from woke, Biden-era, non-lethal programs, and instead spend that money on President Trump's America First, peace through strength, priorities," Hegseth said.

"It's refocusing and reinvesting existing funds into building a force that protects you, the American people," he added.

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