Politics
By Alex Gangitano
PRESIDENT Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk sat down for a joint interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity and defended the administration’s massive overhaul of the federal government while giving some insights into their friendship.
The interview was the latest display of Trump putting Musk in the spotlight, following an Oval Office appearance by the Tesla CEO last week in which he fielded several questions from reporters while the president sat at the Resolute Desk.
Hannity, who offered both men praise during the interview, at one point assessed: “I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here.”
Here are four takeaways from the interview.
Musk responds to Democratic attacks
Musk responded to pushback he has faced since spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to offer buyouts to federal workers and to find ways to cut waste and fraud at agencies, blaming the bureaucracy for the criticism.
“If the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president … from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy,” Musk said.
Hannity rattled off a number of criticisms Democrats had for Musk, including claims he is causing a constitutional crisis and that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is acting illegally, and noting Democrats are calling him a “vernacular for a male body part.”
Why? Why are they reacting like this?” Musk said.
“All we’re really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president. And, and what we’re finding is that there’s an unelected bureaucracy. Speaking of unelected … there’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the Cabinet. And if you look at, say, D.C. voting, it’s 92 percent Kamala,” Musk added, referring to former Vice President Kamala Harris more than 92 percent of the vote in Washington, D.C., last November.
A number of federal workers also live in surrounding Virginia and Maryland, which Harris also won but not by as much.
The SpaceX CEO also bashed the Biden administration, arguing it didn’t act in a competent or caring manner and that it lied to the American public.
“In order to save the taxpayer money, it comes down to two things: competence and caring,” Musk said.
“And the problem is that the American taxpayer has been getting a terrible deal, because look at the last administration,” he added.
Hannity replied, “But they lied to us and said that Joe didn’t have a cognitive decline,” referring to former President Biden’s cognitive abilities that came into question in the weeks before he dropped out of the 2024 race.
“They fully lied,” Musk responded, adding, “They flat out lied, it’s insane,” when Hannity brought up the border.
Trump has praise for Musk
Trump had high praise for Musk throughout the interview, highlighting his successful tech career and his intelligence.
The president noted he was impressed with Musk when he saw Musk’s team had the ability to catch a rocket booster instead of having it crash into the ocean.
“Something that had an effect on me was when I saw the rocket ship come back and get grabbed like you grab a beautiful little baby. You grab your baby … you can’t really have a rocket program if you’re going to dump $1 billion into the ocean every time you fly. You have to save it, and he saved it,” Trump said.
He added that Russia and China don’t have anything comparable to Musk’s rocket program.
In the interview, the president also credited Musk as a major key toward implementing the dozens of executive orders he has signed since taking office.
“You write a beautiful executive and you sign it, you assume it’s going to be done, but it’s not,” Trump said, adding that Musk works with “100 geniuses” at DOGE to implement his agenda.
“He’s got some very brilliant young people working for him that dress much worse than him, actually,” Trump joked. “They dress in just T-shirts. You wouldn’t know they have 180 IQ. … But he gets it done. He’s a leader. He gets it done.”
Musk solidified Trump support after Butler shooting
Musk said he would have endorsed Trump regardless in the 2024 election but that the assassination attempt of him in Butler, Pa., in July sped up that process.
“Well, I was going to do it anyway, but that was a precipitating event,” Musk told Hannity.
“That speeded it up a little bit,” Trump said, and Musk agreed.
Trump replied, “I didn’t know that.”
“It sped it up, but I was going to do it anyway,” Musk said. The 53-year-old endorsed Trump just after the assassination attempt, sharing his support for the then GOP-nominee on his social platform X. He shared a video at the time of Trump standing and raising his fist as his ear bled while he was being hauled away by Secret Service following the shooting at the rally.
Trump believes Musk will find $1T in DOGE cuts
Trump said he believes Musk will be able to find $1 trillion in cuts to the federal government, after DOGE determined Tuesday it has found $55 billion in savings in the past month.
“As good as they are, they’re not going to find some contract that was crooked, you know, crooked as hell. And I mean, this going to be so much that isn’t found. But, what is that I think he’s going to find $1 trillion,” Trump said.
“Yeah, I think so,” Musk agreed.
The tech billionaire said his goal is to “try to get $1 trillion out of the deficit” and that he aims to pay down U.S. debt.
“If the deficit is not brought under control, America will go bankrupt. This is a very important thing for people to understand. A country is no different from an individual in that if an individual overspends, an individual can go bankrupt. And so can a country, and the massive waste, fraud and abuse that has been going on, which is leading to, a $2 trillion a year deficit, that’s, that’s what the president was handed on Jan. 20, a $2 trillion deficit. It’s insane,” Musk said.
The tech executive in early January said he will “try for $2 trillion,” adding at the time, “I think that’s like the best-case outcome.”
Yahoonews/Hill
A.I
Feb. 19, 2025
Tags: Elon Musk President Donald Trump
