Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk and seven members of the team shed light on the department’s cost-cutting mission in an exclusive sit-down interview with “Special Report” Thursday

“We want to reduce spending by eliminating waste and fraud and reduce the spending by 15%, which seems really quite achievable,” Musk told “Special Report” executive editor Bret Baier

“The government is not efficient, and there’s a lot of waste and fraud. So we feel confident that a 15% reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services.”

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As of March 27, DOGE claims on its site it has saved Americans $130 billion, or $807.45 per taxpayer.

President Donald Trump tasked the organization with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations and slashing spending and gave the agency 18 months to do it.

The department has canceled numerous diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at federal agencies, consulting contracts, leases for underused federal buildings and duplicate agencies and programs.

DOGE announced Tuesday it was terminating over a hundred contracts and slashing billions more in expenses, including a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) consulting contract for Peru’s climate change activities.

Musk and DOGE have been a lightning rod for criticism due to the department’s commitment to slashing waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Critics contend the organization has too much access to federal systems and should not be permitted to cancel federal contracts or make cuts to various agencies.

“They may characterize it as shooting from the hip, but it is anything but that,” Musk said, noting the agency’s approach to cuts is to “measure twice, if not thrice and cut once.”

“Which is not to say that we don’t make mistakes. If we were to approach this with the standard of making no mistakes at all, that would be like saying someone in baseball has got to bat a thousand. That’s impossible. So when we do make mistakes, we correct them quickly and we move on,” he added.

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Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.