Many Democrats have complained that “nobody elected Elon Musk,” but President Donald Trump made no secret about his plans for Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during the presidential campaign.

American voters responded by giving Trump the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate, and a popular vote victory.

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt spoke to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, where he defended Musk and the actions of DOGE.

“It’s incredible. And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, we’re just talking about USAID right now. Wait till they get to the other agencies that have been bloated and unaccountable. And this is permanent Washington’s worst nightmare, which is why you see this hair on fire moment right now, because they’ve been able to hide behind this, you know, sort of secrecy for far too long. You mentioned some of these programs. They know that if the American taxpayer knew what this money was being spent on, they would object you’d have sort of a new Tea Party moment in this country, and it’s all coming to light, which is a good thing,” the senator said to Ingraham.

“We want this fight, Laura. I have a partial list. I just want to read a couple more things. You mentioned the girls-centered climate action in Brazil, 45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma. 1.5 billion for DEI in Serbia. 47,000 for a trans opera in Colombia. 32,000 for a trans comic book in Peru. $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala. That is just the beginning of this stuff,” he added.

“So I think, you know, this is a really important field, I think for us to fight on. The Democrats are essentially the guardians of permanent Washington right now, and we should welcome this fight,” he said.

After Ingraham played a clip of Bill Gates complaining that there would be a catastrophe if USAID is ended, the senator responded that Republicans should want this fight and said that they could potentially save the nation trillions of dollars.

“There needs to be real reform within these agencies, and we can save hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars, doing the right thing. We can be wearing the white hats here, as Republicans, we should welcome this fight. The Democrats are defending the status quo, which is totally broken,” said Schmitt.