Musk acknowledges $2 trillion spending cut goal a long shot

Elon Musk, who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to oversee a government cost-cutting effort, acknowledged that his declared goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the $6.8 trillion federal budget would be a long shot.

"I think if we try for 2 trillion, we've got a good shot at getting 1," Musk, the world's richest person, said in a discussion on Wednesday with Mark Penn, a political strategist and former pollster. He described the $2 trillion target as a "best-case outcome."