Washington DC - President Donald Trump claimed that Elon Musk, who is presiding over a purge of US government jobs, will help find "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud" in federal agencies.

Speaking in a Fox News interview with Bret Baier aired on Sunday before the Super Bowl, Trump said the American people "want me to find" waste and that Musk, the world's richest man, has been "a great help" in rooting out unnecessary spending.

"We're going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse. And, you know, the people elected me on that," the president claimed.

Trump has unleashed a flurry of executive orders aimed at dismantling large swaths of the administrative state.

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He has appointed far-right billionaire Musk to lead his attacks on institutions, as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is not an official government agency.

Musk has already taken steps to shut down the USAID, and was only stopped by a federal judge from going on a layoff spree. His businesses have billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government.

Trump said in his interview that over the next day or so he will order Musk to turn his attention to the Department of Education.

"Then I'm going to go to the military," Trump said, reiterating his call for a review of spending at the Pentagon, whose 2025 budget totals some $850 billion.

Asked whether he trusts Musk to fairly root out wasteful spending, Trump insisted that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was "not gaining anything" from his outsized role in the administration.

Trump also doubled down on a scheme to annex Canada, saying the US' northern neighbor "would be much better off being a 51st state, because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada."

Since taking office, Trump has characterized billions of dollars in daily bilateral trade as a US "subsidy" and claimed without evidence that Canada would not be "a viable country" without it.

Trump threatened Canada and Mexico with a 25% tariff on all imports, suspending the measures after striking deals with both countries on plans to curb undocumented immigration and the trafficking of fentanyl into the US.

Both countries secured a one-month delay after the 11th-hour talks with Trump, but on Sunday the US leader warned what had been done so far was "not enough."

"Something has to happen, it's not sustainable, and I'm changing it," he said when asked if both countries needed to do more before the 30-day deadline.