WASHINGTON, D.C. – Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), admitted on Wednesday that his cost-cutting agency had “accidentally” terminated a USAID program designed to prevent the spread of Ebola.
Speaking before Donald Trump’s cabinet while wearing a “dark MAGA” hat, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps in its aggressive push to slash federal spending.
Among those, he said, was the abrupt halt of USAID’s Ebola prevention efforts.
“We will make mistakes,” Musk said. “We won’t be perfect, but when we make mistakes, we’ll fix them very quickly. For example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention.”
Musk, who reportedly laughed while recounting the error, insisted that his team acted swiftly to restore the program once they realized the oversight.
“I think we all want Ebola prevention,” he said. “So we restored it immediately, and there was no interruption.”
However, that claim has been disputed. According to The Washington Post, current and former USAID officials say the program remains largely dismantled.
Sources within the agency said DOGE’s freeze on outgoing payments last month effectively gutted USAID’s ability to fight Ebola, dismantling teams and cutting off funding to partner organizations.
“There have been no efforts to ‘turn on’ anything in prevention of Ebola and other diseases,” said Nidhi Bouri, a former senior USAID official who oversaw the agency’s health crisis response under the Biden administration.
The Trump administration did grant a waiver allowing USAID to respond to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda last month.
However, officials say the response was severely hampered, as partner organizations were not paid promptly, and USAID’s capacity was sharply reduced compared to previous outbreaks.
Ebola is a highly lethal virus that causes fever, vomiting, and severe internal bleeding.
A 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa killed over 11,000 people and briefly spread to the U.S.
Global health leaders have since worked to prevent another epidemic, but with USAID’s efforts now in limbo, experts warn the risks may be rising again.
Meanwhile, Musk defended DOGE’s rapid budget cuts, arguing that swift action was necessary to achieve the administration’s goal of slashing the federal deficit by $1 trillion in the 2026 fiscal year.
“We need to move quickly,” he said. “That means saving $4 billion a day, every day, through the end of September. But we can do it, and we will do it.”
