US President Donald Trump painted Elon Musk as his enforcer-in-chief on Tuesday, hailing the tech billionaire’s zeal in implementing the blizzard of executive orders the president has issued since returning to office.
In a joint interview broadcast on Fox News, the two men spent substantial time singing the other’s praises and dismissing concerns that Trump is overstepping his executive powers.
Trump has signed scores of executive directives in the past three weeks, many of which have been challenged in the courts as potentially unconstitutional.
Billionaire Musk, who was Trump’s top donor during his 2024 presidential campaign, was tasked with leading the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the declared goal of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal spending.
“One of the biggest functions of the DOGE team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out,” Musk told Fox News.
In the interview, Trump insisted his policies — including a wholesale onslaught on federal institutions — should be implemented without delay and said Musk was instrumental in pushing them forward.
“You write an executive order and you think it’s done, you send it out, it doesn’t get done. It doesn’t get implemented,” Trump said.
He added that Musk and the DOGE team have now become an enforcement mechanism within the federal bureaucracy to enact his administration’s agenda without anyone standing in their way — or else risk losing their jobs.
“And some guy that maybe didn’t want to do it, all of a sudden, he’s signing it,” Trump said.
‘The will of the people’
The Fox interview was broadcast just hours after Trump signed a sweeping executive order that sought to extend and consolidate direct White House control over federal regulatory agencies.
The order, which is likely to face legal challenges, would force agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission to submit regulatory proposals to the White House for review.
“For the federal government to be truly accountable to the American people, officials who wield vast executive power must be supervised and controlled by the people’s elected president,” the executive order states.
Musk found humour in his role as Trump’s executor, describing himself as a “technologist” and donning a T-shirt that read “Tech Support” for the interview.
Musk waved off criticism that he was acting as if he were the US president, saying none of Trump’s cabinet members were elected and that he views his role as facilitating Trump’s agenda.
“The president is the elected representative of the people, so it’s representing the will of the people,” Musk explained.
“And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy.”
President Elon?
Musk’s prominent role in the Trump administration has led to public questioning of who is really in charge at the White House, though the Republican leader was quick to dismiss rumours of bad blood between the two.
“Actually, Elon called me,” Trump said. “He said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
But Trump expressed confidence that Americans will not be fooled by alleged efforts to strain ties between him and Musk.
“I used to think they were good at it,” Trump said, referring to the media.
“They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.”
“The people are smart,” he went on. “They get it. “
US judge declines to block Musk from accessing data, firing workers
Separately, a US judge declined a request to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from firing federal employees and accessing agency data, a victory for Trump in his bid to shrink the government workforce.
Fourteen Democratic-ruled states had filed suit last week contesting Musk’s legal authority but District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied their emergency request to pause his actions.
“Plaintiffs have not carried their burden of showing that they will suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order,” Chutkan said.
DOGE is a free-ranging entity run by Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor. The billionaire has taken an assertive role in the new administration, with his agency aiming to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending.
His plans have effectively shuttered some federal agencies, sent thousands of staff members home and sparked legal battles across the country.
In their suit, the 14 states claimed that Musk and DOGE lacked statutory authority for their actions because he had not been formally nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
“[Musk] exercises virtually unchecked power across the Executive Branch, making decisions about expenditures, contracts, government property, regulations, and the very existence of federal agencies,” they said.
In addition, Musk and DOGE have gained access to “sensitive data, information, systems and technological and financial infrastructure across the federal government”, they added.
The 14 states had sought to block DOGE from accessing the data systems of the Office of Personnel Management and the Departments of Education, Labour, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation and Commerce, and from terminating any of their employees.
Chutkan, in her ruling, said: “The court is aware that DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion for plaintiffs and many of their agencies and residents.
“But the ‘possibility’ that defendants may take actions that irreparably harm plaintiffs ‘is not enough,’” she said.
Musk’s cost-cutting spree has been met with legal pushback on several fronts and a mixed bag of rulings.
A different federal judge last week lifted a freeze he had temporarily imposed on a mass buyout plan offered by the Trump administration to federal workers.
In the mass buyout case, labour unions representing federal employees had filed suit to block the scheme masterminded by Musk to slash the size of government by encouraging federal workers to quit.
In an email titled “Fork in the Road”, the more than two million US government employees were given an offer to leave with eight months’ pay or risk being fired in future culls.
According to the White House, more than 75,000 federal employees signed on to the buyout offer from the Office of Personnel Management.
Trump’s executive actions have been challenged in dozens of court cases and the White House has accused “judges in liberal districts” of “abusing their power” to block the president’s moves.
The decisions have come from judges nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump himself during his first term.
Chutkan, an appointee of Democratic former president Barack Obama, presided over the now-abandoned case against Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
