Elon Musk appears at White House defending DOGE’s work

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President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday to defend the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government, amid concerns that he’s amassing power with little transparency or accountability.

Billionaire Musk stood next to Trump in the Oval Office at the White House with his four-year-old son as the United States president praised his work in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Trump signed an executive order expanding Musk’s powers to continue downsizing the federal workforce, by which a DOGE representative will need to approve almost all new hiring.

Wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap, Musk defended DOGE’s work as “common sense” and “not draconian or radical”. He described the federal bureaucracy as an “unelected” fourth branch of government with “more power than any elected representative”.

“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” he told reporters. “That’s what democracy is all about.”