Yesterday, for the umpteenth time, Donald Trump and Elon Musk did not miss an opportunity to praise each other during an interview aired on Fox News. The honeyed words exchanged by the two, perhaps surprised even host Sean Hannity who said, “I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here.”
The program aired after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had been assailed by criticism in recent weeks. Indeed, many have accused the world’s richest man and the agency he heads of disrupting vast swaths of the federal bureaucracy in an alleged effort to detect “waste, fraud and corruption” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The two also dismissed complaints that Musk, who has billions of dollars in government contracts through his companies, such as SpaceX and Tesla, has serious conflicts of interest that could lead him to skew federal spending in his favor. In this regard, the 53-year-old from Pretoria stated: “I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever.”
Trump, for his part, promised savings of “hundreds of billions” as a result of DOGE’s work–a figure deemed unrealistic by several experts. Nevertheless, the MAGA leader once again praised the work of his most prominent supporter, stating: “This guy’s a brilliant guy. He’s a great guy. He’s got tremendous and scientific imagination” as Musk sat by his side. “But he’s also a good person. He’s a very good person, and he wants to see the country do well.”
Trump added that Musk–who referred to himself as his “technical support”– had been instrumental in ensuring that the avalanche of executive orders signed since last Jan. 20 were implemented. He also predicted that the world’s richest man will be able to cut $1 trillion in government spending, but added that this would only be a small percentage of existing waste and fraud.
During the interview, the two again reiterated allegations against USAID’s foreign spending, despite the fact that some of it had already been denied as a result of the audits. Trump then added that key programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, will not face any cuts.
Finally, the DOGE president and secretary wanted to put to rest any rumors about a possible breakup of their partnership due to personality conflicts and differing visions. “Actually, Elon called me and said, ‘you know, they’re trying to drive us apart’.” Trump then added, “Now they said: ‘We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk.’ And I say it’s just so obvious, so bad. I used to think they were good at it. They’re actually bad at it because if they were good at it, I’d never be president – because nobody in history has ever got more bad publicity than I’ve had.”
“I love the president”, Musk concluded as part of the love-fest, “I just want to be clear about that. I think President Trump is a good man. The president has been so unfairly attacked in the media, it’s really outrageous”.
