(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk sat down for a joint interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday and defended the administration’s efforts to conduct an expansive overhaul of the federal government.
The interview was the latest display of Trump sharing the spotlight with Musk, following an Oval Office appearance by the Tesla CEO last week in which he fielded several questions from reporters while the president sat at the Resolute Desk.
The White House says billionaire Elon Musk is not technically part of the Department of Government Efficiency team sweeping through federal agencies, but is rather a senior adviser to the president.
In the interview, Musk defended DOGE’s work and claimed the department is working to root out “unelected” bureaucrats in the U.S. government.
“They wouldn’t be complaining so much if we weren’t doing something useful… What we’re 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 — speaking of unelected, there’s a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the president and the cabinet.”
He brushed aside Democratic criticisms of DOGE, insisting the try agency is trying “to restore democracy and the will of the people.”
Musk’s exact role could be key in the legal fight over DOGE’s access to government data as the Trump administration moves to lay off thousands of federal workers. Defining him as an adviser rather than the administrator in charge of day-to-day operations at DOGE could help the administration as it pushes back against a lawsuit arguing Musk has too much power for someone who isn’t elected or Senate-confirmed.
NewsNation affiliate The Hill contributed to this report.