Picking his nose in the Oval Office Musk's son steals the show from his father and Trump
Journalists first had to wait for Elon Musk at the White House to ask him critical questions. At the official appointment, his young son frolicked around him.
12.02.2025, 08:48
12.02.2025, 09:42
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- US government advisor and billionaire Elon Musk answered questions from journalists at the White House together with President Donald Trump.
- Among other things, he had to admit to making false statements.
- Meanwhile, the show was stolen by X Æ A-Xii, Musk's son, who made faces and stuck his finger in his father's ear.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is currently shaking up the US government, was confronted with his misstatements on US government spending during an appearance at the White House. "Some of the things I say will not be correct and should be corrected," Musk said afterwards.
Musk had been tasked by US President Donald Trump with scrutinizing and cutting government spending. Both have been claiming for days that, in addition to billions in wasted money, fraud has also been identified. So far, however, no evidence of this has been published.
The White House cited an alleged delivery of condoms worth 50 million dollars to the Gaza Strip as an example of unnecessary spending uncovered by Musk's cost-cutting committee Doge. Musk speculated that the money had ended up with the Islamist Hamas. Trump once even spoke of a delivery of condoms worth 100 million dollars to the Gaza Strip.
The other Gaza
During a joint appearance with Trump in the Oval Office, however, Musk was told by a journalist that the condoms had been delivered to the province of Gaza in Mozambique as part of US development aid to combat the spread of HIV.
It was Musk's first appearance in months where journalists were able to ask him questions. The tech billionaire usually only communicates via his online platform X, where he can ignore critical questions. Now he admitted: "We will make mistakes." But these will also be corrected quickly. Regarding the condom deliveries to Mozambique, he said: "Okay, that's not quite so bad - but still (...), why are we doing this?"
Musk's son steals the show
At the official event, Musk's four-year-old son named X Æ A-Xii (nickname: X) also frolicked around, making faces, picking his nose in front of the camera and sitting on his father's shoulders at the end. A few times he seemed to imitate Musk's gestures.
Musk was also asked about the White House's assurances that he would look out for potential conflicts of interest in his work himself. The world's richest man by some estimates runs the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the aerospace company SpaceX, which also launches rockets into space on behalf of the US government.
He therefore has business interests in dealing with authorities such as the Department of Defense, whose spending he is also supposed to review. Musk said that he was ultimately not the one concluding a contract, but "people at SpaceX".
Tech billionaire promises transparency
Musk also assured that the procedures of his Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) would be transparent and comprehensible. All activities would be published on Platform X and on the Doge website. "All our actions are as transparent as possible," said Musk. He consults with Trump on a daily basis and only acts at the president's behest. So far, Doge has not published any documents on the alleged waste of money or savings, only Musk's assertions.
The committee he heads has no mandate from the US parliament, which approves government spending. Several state attorneys general and trade unions filed lawsuits against the Doge actions and were able to obtain injunctions. On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order obliging the authorities to cooperate more with Doge.
US development aid paralyzed
Among other things, Musk's actions led to the partial closure of the development aid agency USAID. The agency is to be drastically downsized and has recently come under the leadership of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Musk has also organized a huge redundancy programme in which government officials can voluntarily give up their jobs in return for severance payments.
Critics fear that Trump wants to get rid of critically thinking government officials at all levels of management in this way and replace them with loyalists in order to gain power over the authorities. Musk and other confidants of the president defend this strategy by arguing that the majority of US citizens elected him precisely to vehemently bring about changes in the administrative apparatus, among other things.
