U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) praised billionaire Elon Musk for his government-slashing efforts despite hundreds of federal workers at risk of losing their jobs.

Musk is leading President Donald Trump’s agenda to reduce the size of the federal government, resulting in mass layoffs just weeks into his second term. While most Americans have negative views of Musk, Salazar said the U.S. should be “grateful” for his work.

“Think about it: He doesn’t have to be doing this. He’s the richest guy in the world. He could be on a rocket somewhere. He’s helping our government get better and get leaner,” Salazar said.

“So we do have to appreciate that he is bringing dozens of his best minds to help with the algorithms, to understand where the waste, the fraud and the abuse is at in all these different federal programs. So we appreciate what he’s doing,” she continued.

Musk’s efforts to downsize the federal government have already caused ripples throughout the country. According to a recent analysis by The Associated Press, thousands of federal employees have been fired across numerous agencies as a result of Musk’s and Trump’s efforts.

Salazar also argued that Musk is not going to “profit” from his position in the administration.

“I don’t think that he is going to profit. … He has government contracts. He doesn’t need to be doing what he’s doing in order to make more money — money that he doesn’t need,” she said.

“So I think it’s the other way around. We’ve got to be very grateful that he is wanting to do this and investing his time, energy and money into it,” he added.

Many critics have raised concerns about Musk having a conflict of interest in his role in the Trump administration. In recent days, Musk’s Starlink has clinched a new government contract to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration’s information systems.

The FAA contract is not Musk’s only conflict. His acolytes have also taken over many of the operations at the General Services Administration, which controls real estate and contracting for numerous government agencies.

GSA currently offers other agencies the ability to launch payloads through an existing SpaceX contract — putting the agency in a position to direct business toward Musk. The Department of Transportation regulates aspects of SpaceX and his electric car company Tesla. NASA and the Department of Defense are major customers of SpaceX. His brain-computer interface company Neuralink has regulatory issues in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.