President Trump described Elon Musk’s role leading the Department of Government Efficiency as the billionaire tech tycoon’s “biggest” undertaking of his illustrious career.
“This will be the biggest thing he’s ever done,” Trump said of Musk and DOGE, during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The president argued that while Musk’s various business ventures, including Tesla, SpaceX and X, “are all great,” they might suffer if he doesn’t succeed at slashing government waste, fraud and abuse.
“If this country goes bad, his stuff is not going to be worth very much,” Trump said.
Musk, 53, seemed to agree with the commander in chief.
“If the ship of America sinks, we’re all going down with it,” the DOGE chief said.
“You know, this idea that people can escape to New Zealand or some other place is false,” Musk added. “If the central pillar of Western civilization that is America falls, the whole roof comes crashing down and there is no escape.”
When Trump once again suggested during the joint interview – the duo’s first – that “there could be nothing bigger” for Musk to accomplish than his work at DOGE, Hannity pushed back.
“You’re sending ships up to Mars, you know, spaceships up in the sky all the time, saving astronauts … that’s pretty big,” the Fox News host asked Musk.
To which Trump responded: “That’s peanuts compared to what we’re talking about.”
Musk is aiming to cut at least $1 trillion in federal spending through the DOGE initiative.
The group claims it has already saved taxpayers about $55 billion.
Trump believes that at the current pace DOGE is chipping away at the deficit, the country may be able to pass a balanced budget “very quickly.”
“Between what [Musk’s] doing and with income coming in from tariffs and other things … I think we could do it very quickly,” the president declared. “We would have never done it if this didn’t happen.”
In response to criticism that Musk might avoid cuts that would impact his own bottom line, Trump was adamant that he wouldn’t allow his chief cost-cutter to be involved in any DOGE decisions where he might have a conflict of interest.
“If there’s any conflict, he will stop it. But if he didn’t, I’d stop it,” Trump said.
“He’s under a pretty big microscope. I mean, everybody’s watching him,” the president continued. “If there’s a conflict, you’re going to be reading about it within about two minutes after the conflict.”
Musk estimated that the possibility of him “getting away with something” at DOGE is “0%.”
“I’m scrutinized to a ridiculous degree,” he argued.
When asked if he anticipates being by Trump’s side in the White House four years from now, Musk responded: “I’ll be as helpful as long as I can be helpful.”
