March 27 (Reuters) - Tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom

U.S. President Donald Trump has tapped to shrink the government,

said on Thursday he would finish most of the work to cut $1

trillion in federal spending when his tenure ends in as soon as

64 days.

Musk told Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier" that he

was confident his Department of Government Efficiency could find

$1 trillion in savings, slimming current total federal spending

levels of about $7 trillion down to $6 trillion.

Musk, the world's richest person, was designated by the

White House as a "special government employee," which caps his

work at 130 days. That means his period leading the DOGE

operation could finish as soon as the end of May.

"I think we will accomplish most of the work required to

reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time

frame," Musk said when asked by Baier about his tenure and how

quickly he expected to achieve his cost-cutting target.

"The government is not efficient, and there is 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," Musk said.

DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $115 billion

as of March 24 through actions including workforce reductions,

asset sales and contract cancellations.

However, the savings total published on the DOGE website

is unverifiable and its calculations have been riddled with

errors and corrections. Budget experts say Musk cannot reach his

target without touching entitlement programs like Social

Security, which Trump has vowed not to cut.

The interview marked the first time that Musk and his

top lieutenants at DOGE met with media to explain their work.

Musk was joined by seven other DOGE executives, including Steve

Davis, the president of Musk's tunneling enterprise the Boring

Company, and Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb.

"Unless this exercise is successful, the ship of America

will sink. That's why we're doing it," said Musk, who is also

CEO of electric car maker Tesla.

Musk's role in slashing the federal workforce and

government agency budgets has drawn political backlash in recent

weeks, with Tesla cars and dealerships hit by a spate of

vandalism and demonstrations across the country.