President Trump shared that he sought to find someone “smarter” than Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but after extensive searching, he couldn’t identify a suitable candidate.
In a joint interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Musk and Trump discussed what drew the president to Musk and what the public should understand about his chief budget-cutter.
“You know, I wanted to find somebody smarter than him,” Trump remarked to Hannity, with Musk sitting next to him.
“I searched all over. I just couldn’t do it,” Trump added. “I couldn’t. I really tried hard. I couldn’t find anyone smarter.”
During the conversation, Trump emphasized that a major goal of his second term would be to find “great people” for his administration. While he didn’t know Musk well before the previous year, he expressed admiration for how the tech mogul had “fought hard” in the private sector.
“I wanted great people. And he’s a great person. He’s an amazing person. He’s also a caring person,” Trump shared.
“He’s a good person, a very good person, and he wants the country to do well,” the president continued, asserting that Musk would not be involved in any DOGE decisions where a conflict of interest could arise.
“If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved,” Trump asserted. “I mean, I wouldn’t want that, and he wouldn’t want it.”
Trump also made it clear that his opposition to the electric vehicle mandates imposed during the Biden administration could potentially harm Musk’s financial interests.
“He’s a very different kind of a character,” Trump said, praising Musk for his ability to attract “high-IQ individuals” to work in the federal government.
Musk, who has set an ambitious goal to slash $1 trillion from federal spending, called Trump’s potential 2024 victory “an opportunity to fix the system” but cautioned that a victory alone wouldn’t be a panacea.
Musk emphasized that success comes down to “competence and caring” when working to provide taxpayers with a better deal. He pointed to Trump’s successful negotiations with Boeing, which reduced the cost of a new Air Force One by several billion dollars.
“When the president was shown the outrageous bill for the new Air Force One, and then negotiated it down, if the president had not applied competence and caring, the price would have been 50% higher — literally 50% higher,” Musk explained.
“The president cared. The president was competent. The price was not 50% higher as a result,” Musk continued. “And so when you add more competence and caring, you get a better deal for the American people.”
Since Trump’s inauguration, the DOGE initiative, led by Musk, has been aggressively cutting waste across federal agencies to eliminate fraud, inefficiency, and abuse.
Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan recently rejected a request from Democrat-led states to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from laying off federal employees and accessing sensitive data at several government agencies.
In recent weeks, DOGE’s cost-cutting measures have focused on agencies like the US Agency for International Development, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Agriculture.
DOGE staff have also embedded themselves within the Treasury Department and have recently had a clash with Michelle King, the former acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, who resigned over the weekend.
Trump has tasked Musk’s “super geniuses” with examining the Pentagon’s budget as well.
To date, DOGE estimates that it has saved taxpayers approximately $55 billion through its ongoing cost-cutting efforts.
{Matzav.com}