No critical questions Much praise, little substance: Trump and Musk in an interview
Trump is once again interviewed by Fox News presenter Sean Hannity. He doesn't have to fear critical questions here. This time, however, he brings in someone else: Tech billionaire Musk.
19.02.2025, 06:06
dpa
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- US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have complimented each other in a joint interview and rejected criticism of their radical cutbacks.
- Fox News presenter Sean Hannity asked virtually no critical questions in the interview recorded at the White House, as he did in his last conversation with Trump.
- Fox News is considered Trump's house and court broadcaster, where the Republican rarely has to reckon with criticism.
- At the same time, the Republican accused other media of bias in the interview with Hannity.
US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk complimented each other in a joint interview and rejected criticism of their radical cutbacks. "I wanted to find someone smarter than him. I looked everywhere. (...) I couldn't find anybody smarter, right," Trump said of Musk in the interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Musk was similarly positive about Trump: "I've spent a lot of time with the president, and not once have I seen him do anything that was mean or cruel or wrong."
Fox News host Hannity raves about Trump
Hannity asked virtually no critical questions in the interview recorded at the White House, as he did in his last conversation with Trump. Instead, he repeatedly revealed his admiration for Trump. "I've known him for 30 years and I've never seen anyone take as much punishment as him," said the 63-year-old presenter. Trump and Musk sat on chairs next to each other - the interview was more of a nice chat than a serious journalistic discussion of Musk's and Trump's plans.
Fox News is considered Trump's house and court broadcaster, where the Republican rarely has to reckon with criticism. At the same time, the Republican accused other media of bias in the interview with Hannity. Musk and Trump emphasized that the media would not manage to drive a wedge between them.
Since taking office, Trump has been driving forward the reorganization of the state apparatus. He entrusted Musk with reducing government spending and created the Doge ("Department of Government Efficiency") for this purpose - with unclear powers. Musk defended his actions and compared criticism of his radical cost-cutting measures and redundancies to a "daily proctological examination".
Musk: Bureaucracy defies the president
"There is a huge federal bureaucracy that relentlessly opposes the president and the cabinet," Musk continued. Trump also made disparaging remarks about government officials and spoke of fraud with regard to their work.
At the same time, Musk explained: "If the will of the president is not being implemented - and the president represents the will of the people - that means the will of the people is not being implemented, and that means we don't live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy." This statement is highly simplistic and ignores the separation of powers, for example. Furthermore, the US president does not represent the will of the people alone. The Congress - unlike the president - is directly elected by the people and also represents the will of the citizens.
Trump assured that Musk would stay out of any conflict of interest in his work for Doge. The Republican left open what exactly this would look like and who would ensure this. The tech billionaire benefits from various government contracts - such as for his aerospace company SpaceX.