Personnel from Elon Musk's DOGE arrive at the Pentagon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Personnel from Elon Musk's government downsizing team called DOGE held what appeared to be their first meetings at the Pentagon on Friday, a U.S. official told Reuters, as senior military officers brace for billions in possible spending cuts.

President Donald Trump had said the Pentagon would be an early target of Musk's DOGE, which has swept through federal agencies searching for spending cuts as part of Trump's overhaul and shrinking of the U.S. government. 

Trump has said he expects Musk to find hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse at the Pentagon.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several personnel from DOGE arrived but did not provide further details. 

Leaders from across the political spectrum have long criticized waste and inefficiency at the Defense Department. But Democrats and civil service unions have said Musk, the world's richest person, lacks the expertise to restructure the Pentagon, and the efforts of his team risk exposing classified programs.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has downplayed such concerns and has said he wants to increase overall U.S. defense spending. Hegseth said he had already been in touch with Musk but on Tuesday added: "We're not going to do things that are to the detriment of American operational or tactical capabilities."

Musk's companies, like SpaceX, also hold major contracts with the Pentagon, which has raised significant conflict of interest concerns.

The Pentagon's budget is approaching $1 trillion per year. In December, then-President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing $895 billion in defense spending for the fiscal year ending September 30.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Will Dunham)