Elon Musk appears at White House defending DOGE’s work

The billionaire Trump state has pushed backmost astatine disapproval implicit transparency, saying his department’s enactment is ‘common sense’.

President Donald Trump’s advisor Elon Musk made a uncommon nationalist quality astatine the White House connected Tuesday to defend the swift and extended cuts he’s pushing crossed the national government, amid concerns that he’s amassing powerfulness with small transparency oregon accountability.

Billionaire Musk stood adjacent to Trump successful the Oval Office astatine the White House with his four-year-old lad arsenic the United States president praised his enactment successful the recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump signed an enforcement bid expanding Musk’s powers to proceed downsizing the national workforce, by which a DOGE typical volition request to o.k. astir each caller hiring.

Wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap, Musk defended DOGE’s enactment arsenic “common sense” and “not draconian oregon radical”. He described the national bureaucracy arsenic an “unelected” 4th subdivision of authorities with “more powerfulness than immoderate elected representative”.

“The radical voted for large authorities reform, and that’s what the radical are going to get,” helium told reporters. “That’s what ideology is each about.”

Concerns that the White House has been moving to bounds autarkic oversight person grown aft the inspector wide for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was fired connected Tuesday, a time aft informing that it had go astir intolerable to show $8.2bn successful humanitarian funds aft DOGE began dismantling the agency.

Musk claimed DOGE’s enactment was being shared connected its website and connected X, the societal media level helium owns, contempt the website containing nary accusation and the X posts lacking details, including which programmes are being chopped and wherever the organisation has access.

In effect to a question astir false statements that the US was spending $50m connected condoms for Gaza, helium acknowledged that immoderate of the claims he’s made astir authorities programmes person been wrong.

“Some of the things that I accidental volition beryllium incorrect and should beryllium corrected. So cipher tin bat 1,000”, helium said.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, pushed backmost astatine disapproval implicit transparency, saying helium expected to beryllium held afloat accountable. “I afloat expect to beryllium scrutinised and get, you know, a regular proctology exam, basically,” Musk said. “It’s not similar I deliberation I tin get distant with something.”

His companies clasp contracts with the Pentagon and quality assemblage worthy billions of dollars, and critics accidental DOGE’s enactment volition springiness Musk entree to delicate outgo systems astatine the US Treasury.

The propulsion towards mass layoffs comes aft the Trump medication attempted to cajole national workers into accepting buyout offers, an effort that was blocked by a national judge.

Trump and Musk lashed retired astatine national judges connected Tuesday, questioning the independency of the judiciary and threatening action. Musk claimed connected X that the state was being destroyed by a “judicial coup”, portion Trump blamed “highly governmental judges” for slowing his agenda.

“We privation to weed retired the corruption. And it seems hard to judge that a justice could say, we don’t privation you to bash that,” Trump said. “So possibly we person to look astatine the judges.”

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Al Jazeera and quality agencies