The Pentagon is in the cost-cutting crosshairs of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth orders officials to find $50 billion in cuts to the defense budget.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously said he would welcome the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk to the Pentagon.

Members of DOGE are expected at the Defense Department as soon as Friday, WSJ said, citing defense officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday said that he had already been in touch with Musk and expressed confidence in the effort to find billions in cost-cutting and to make the Pentagon more efficient.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously said he would welcome the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk to the Pentagon.

The Department of Defense is among several U.S. federal agencies pushing back against the email, which was sent out Saturday.

The email Elon Musk directed to be sent to all federal employees is getting pushback from President Donald Trump's appointed agency heads, notably including the Department of Defense, which posted a statement on Musk's own social media platform instructing its employees to ignore the email for now.

In a recent interview, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would soon welcome Elon Musk to do a review of the Pentagon's massive budget.

Since late January, Pete Marocco, a State Department political appointee who was a divisive figure in the first Trump administration, has overseen the dismantling of the aid agency, working alongside Elon Musk, the tech billionaire adviser to President Trump who has posted dark conspiracy theories about U.S.A.I.D.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a picture to X of what appears to be a tax notice showing he owes more than $33,000 in taxes.

Hegseth, 44, demanded a proposal that would include annual 8% cuts to the Pentagon’s roughly $850 billion budget, according to a memo.