Elon Musk joked in the Oval Office Tuesday that the scrutiny DOGE is receiving is like receiving a ‘daily proctology exam’ but vowed to root out the highest-paid D.C. bureaucrats.
Musk and his son X took over the Oval Tuesday afternoon to mark President Donald Trump signing a DOGE-centric executive order.
The order, which wasn’t immediately released by the White House, was intended to ‘significantly’ scale back the federal workforce, pushing agencies to hire ‘no more than one employee for every four employees’ that depart, according to Semafor.
Trump didn’t even bother signing the order in front of reporters, allowing Musk to hold court with his toddler for more than 30 minutes instead, with the president asking Musk to reveal some of his findings.
‘We do find it sort of odd that, you know, there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,’ Musk said. ‘Which is what happened in USAID. We’re just curious as to where it came from.’
‘Maybe they’re very good at investing, in which case we should take their investment advice perhaps,’ Musk said.
Trump rubber-stamped what Musk was up to, telling reporters, ‘We don’t want an unsuccessful guy doing this.’
‘And I fully expect to be scrutinized and get a daily proctology exam, basically,’ Musk joked. ‘Might as well just camp out there.’
Elon Musk (left) held court with reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday, alongside his son X (center) and President Donald Trump (right)
Elon Musk answered questions about his ‘detractors’ as his Department of Government Efficiency has upended the federal workforce in recent weeks
Musk scoffed when asked about his ‘detractors’ and said the American people voted for these cuts.
‘I have detractors? I don’t believe it,’ the South African-born billionaire replied.
‘Well, first of all, you couldn’t ask for a stronger mandate from the public,’ he continued. ‘The pubilc voted, a majority of the public voted for President Trump.’
‘We won the House, we won the Senate. The people voted for major government reform. There should be no doubt about it. That was on the campaign – the president spoke about that at every rally,’ he went on.
‘People are going to get what they voted for,’ Musk insisted. ‘And that’s what democracy is all about.’
DOGE’s decision to quickly hole out USAID – the United States Agency for International Development – prompted criticism and protests, with Democratic allies in Congress standing alongside federal workers.
There were also major concerns about Musk having access to the Department of Treasury’s payments system.
Musk conceded Tuesday that DOGE’s actions haven’t been perfect.
Elon Musk spoke to reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office with his son X on his shoulders
‘And we are moving fast, so we all make mistakes, but we’ll also fix the mistakes very quickly,’ the SpaceX, X and Tesla head said.
Overall he justified DOGE’s assault on USAID.
‘I think that there are some worth things but overall, if you say, what is the bang for the buck, I would say it’s not very good,’ Musk said.
Right out of the gate, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed the DOGE unearthed $50 million being spent on condoms headed for Gaza.
Trump added to that by suggesting that Hamas fighters were using those condoms to create ‘bombs.’ In the past, Hamas had used condoms, balloons and other inflatables to set fires to Israeli farmland.
But on Tuesday, Musk conceded that the $50 million condoms to Gaza was an inaccurate figure.
‘First of all, some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody’s going to bat a thousand,’ the billionaire said.
‘I’m not sure we should be sending $50 million in condoms anywhere, frankly, I’m not sure that’s something Americans would be really excited about,’ Musk said. ‘But you know, if it went to Mozambique instead of Gaza I’m like that’s not as bad, but why are we doing that?’
