Rep. Tim Burchett Says Elon Musk Motivated to ‘Change the Course’ of America for His ‘Heck of a Lot of Kids’

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) on Wednesday revealed that he questioned Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk about his motivations for leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and that the billionaire cited the fate of his thirteen children.

Burchett, a member of the House DOGE Subcommittee, was asked for his review of Musk and his motivations during a Wednesday interview with “Forbes Newsroom.”

“I think he’s a good adviser. He’s got nothing to gain and everything to lose from this,” Burchett said of Musk. “I like him.”

The Tennessee Republican told the outlet that, speaking to Musk, he cited his own Christianity and love for his family before asking the DOGE official, “Why are you doing this?”

Burchett said Musk offered a “very unique” response.

“Tim, I just saw all the corruption, and people doing without, and he thought about his kids, and of course he has a heck of a lot of kids, and where this country was going for them, and he wanted to change the course of it,” said Burchett of Musk’s motivations. “And I think he’s done it.”

He then reiterated his earlier prediction that DOGE’s investigations into government waste, fraud, and abuse would result in criminal prosecutions of sitting congressmen.

Burchett told Forbes, “You’re probably going to see some people in Washington, and possibly some people in Congress, in handcuffs over some of this stuff because of the money and the graft. They think they’re slick, and there’s no paper trail, but there’s a trail. There’s a trail for every dollar, and Elon Musk has got a team together, and that’s why they’re squealing the most.”

Pressed for specifics, Burchett predicted that “some bureaucrats” will face punishment, but that DOGE’s investigations will ultimately lead to “lawmakers, because of their families.”

He explained, “The way they set up these NGOs is they get a rich person to put $1 million in some thing, and it has some great name, and then some bureaucrat, unelected bureaucrat, puts, it might be $1 billion into their fund, of our tax dollars, and then it flows in a circuitous route back to Washington, to those same politicians, to their campaigns, and possibly just straight to their back pocket if they have a family member that works there.”

When the outlet asked Burchett for specific names, he replied, “I have my suspicions, and it could possibly be in both parties, but I’ll leave that to law enforcement.”

Burchett previously predicted DOGE investigations would lead to “red faces in Congress” during a contentious CNN appearance last month, and more recently said DOGE and Musk should investigate Congress for “ill-gotten gains” related to the Ukraine War while appearing on C-SPAN.

Watch Burchett’s full appearance on “Forbes Newsroom”:

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Elon Musk” by Elon Musk.