President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk sat down for a joint interview with Fox Information’s Sean Hannity and defended the administration’s large overhaul of the federal authorities whereas giving some insights into their friendship.
The interview was the newest show of Trump placing Musk within the highlight, following an Oval Workplace look by the Tesla CEO final week by which he fielded a number of questions from reporters whereas the president sat on the Resolute Desk.
Hannity, who provided each males reward through the interview, at one level assessed: “I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here.”
Listed below are 4 takeaways from the interview.
Musk responds to Democratic assaults
Musk responded to pushback he has confronted since spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to supply buyouts to federal staff and to seek out methods to chop waste and fraud at businesses, blaming the forms 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 stated.
Hannity rattled off quite a lot of criticisms Democrats had for Musk, together with claims he’s inflicting a constitutional disaster and that his Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) is appearing illegally, and noting Democrats are calling him a “vernacular for a male body part.”
“Why? Why are they reacting like this?” Musk stated.
“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 greater than 92 % of the vote in Washington, D.C., final November.
A lot of federal staff additionally reside in surrounding Virginia and Maryland, which Harris additionally received however not by as a lot.
The SpaceX CEO additionally bashed the Biden administration, arguing it didn’t act in a reliable or caring method 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 stated.
“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 talents that got here into query within the weeks earlier than he dropped out of the 2024 race.
“They fully lied,” Musk responded, including, “They flat out lied, it’s insane,” when Hannity introduced up the border.
Trump has reward for Musk
Trump had excessive reward for Musk all through the interview, highlighting his profitable tech profession and his intelligence.
The president famous he was impressed with Musk when he noticed Musk’s staff had the power to catch a rocket booster as an alternative of getting 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 stated.
He added that Russia and China don’t have something corresponding to Musk’s rocket program.
Within the interview, the president additionally credited Musk as a significant key towards implementing the handfuls of government orders he has signed since taking workplace.
“You write a beautiful executive and you sign it, you assume it’s going to be done, but it’s not,” Trump stated, including 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 assist after Butler taking pictures
Musk stated he would have endorsed Trump regardless within the 2024 election however that the assassination try of him in Butler, Pa., in July sped up that course of.
“Well, I was going to do it anyway, but that was a precipitating event,” Musk instructed Hannity.
“That speeded it up a little bit,” Trump stated, and Musk agreed.
Trump replied, “I didn’t know that.”
“It sped it up, but I was going to do it anyway,” Musk stated. The 53-year-old endorsed Trump simply after the assassination try, sharing his assist for the then GOP-nominee on his social platform X. He shared a video on the time of Trump standing and elevating his fist as his ear bled whereas he was being hauled away by Secret Service following the taking pictures on the rally.
Trump believes Musk will discover $1T in DOGE cuts
Trump stated he believes Musk will have the ability to discover $1 trillion in cuts to the federal authorities, after DOGE decided Tuesday it has discovered $55 billion in financial savings up to now 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 stated.
“Yeah, I think so,” Musk agreed.
The tech billionaire stated his aim is to “try to get $1 trillion out of the deficit” and that he goals 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 stated.
The tech government in early January stated he’ll “try for $2 trillion,” including on the time, “I think that’s like the best-case outcome.”
