President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk presented a united front and defended their breakneck work revamping the federal government during a joint Fox News interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening.
The two men heaped praise upon each other, with Musk proclaiming his “love” for the president and Trump repeatedly touting Musk’s intelligence and business acuity.
Their mutual praise quickly led Hannity to declare a sibling-like relationship between the two men.
“I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here,” Hannity said.
Trump’s joint interview with Musk came before the president sat down for a major interview with either first lady Melania Trump or Vice President JD Vance, whom he recently said was not his successor. It is likely a sign of Donald Trump’s trust in Musk, who has weathered increasing attacks over the last month.
The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency is furiously working to slash the federal workforce and trim federal spending. Donald Trump signaled his unwavering support for Musk when he signed an executive order last week directing agencies to comply with DOGE’s work as Musk joined him in the Oval Office and took questions from the press.
“Actually, Elon called me,” the president said, “‘You know they are trying to drive us apart,’ and I said, ‘Absolutely,’” Donald Trump told Hannity.
“They said, We have breaking news. Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a Cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o’clock,” the president mocked. “And I say it’s just so obvious, they’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it.”
The president also claimed that Musk’s work would result in an eye-popping number of money saved. “I think he’s going to find a trillion dollars,” Donald Trump said. “But I think it’s a very small percentage compared to what it is.”
Democrats have derisively referred to the billionaire owner of X as “President Musk,” which the president and Musk sought to downplay during the interview.
“I used to be adored by the Left, you know … less so these days,” Musk commented about the bitter attacks from Democrats. “They call it like ‘Trump derangement syndrome.’ And you don’t realize how real this is until, like … you can’t reason with people.”
On Presidents Day, protesters across the country took to the streets to display their opposition to Musk, who has facilitated the firing, offering of deferred resignations, and layoffs of thousands of federal employees.
Over 10,000 federal workers have been fired through “large-scale reductions” in the government workforce and another 75,000 federal workers accepted the administration’s “Fork in the Road” deferred resignation offer.
Musk’s efforts with DOGE have prompted Democratic lawmakers and unions to sue the administration with mixed results in blocking the slashing of the government workforce.
“I guess we must be over the target of doing something right. You know, they wouldn’t be complaining so much if we weren’t doing something useful,” Musk added later in the Tuesday interview. “What we are really trying to do here is restore the will of the people through the president, and what we’re finding is that there’s an unelected bureaucracy.”
Musk claimed that the federal bureaucracy was “implacably opposed to the president and the Cabinet,” and he defended the work that DOGE has implemented over the last 30 days as a mandate the public has bestowed upon Donald Trump.
However, on Monday, the White House said in a legal filing that Musk is not classified as working at DOGE and has only been advising the president.
“I mean, winning the election is really the opportunity to fix the system. It is not fixing the system itself,” Musk said.
“So, it’s an opportunity to fix the system and to restore the power of democracy, and people. … It’s funny how, often, when these attacks occur, the thing that they’re accusing the administration of is what they are guilty of,” he continued. “They’re saying that things are being done are unconstitutional, but what they are doing is unconstitutional. They are guilty of the crime of which they accuse us.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Donald Trump echoed similar comments to Musk, claiming that critics, Democrats, and the legacy media were implementing “a con job.”
“They’re so bad for the country, so dangerous, and so bad,” the president said.
