Trump and Musk are interviewed together: "Like two brothers"

Author: Wu Yu, Jin Shi Data

On Tuesday night EST, Fox News aired an exclusive interview with U.S. President Trump and billionaire Musk, who are vigorously cutting federal spending. Host Sean Hannity praised the two, who were also full of praise for each other.

As this interview comes, Musk's role and influence in the Trump administration are being increasingly scrutinized. Here are the key moments in this one-hour interview.

"It's like interviewing two brothers"

Trump and Musk sat side by side, and Trump praised Musk's intelligence and business acumen. He claimed the media tried to "disconnect from us" and insisted that their relationship was very harmonious .

Trump called the world's richest man "actually a very good businessman", saying Musk and his "100 geniuses" ensured the execution of his series of executive orders, but Trump did not say Musk was The think tank behind these executive orders. “He can get things done,” Trump said.

Musk said he played a "technical support" role in implementing Trump's executive orders.

He praised Trump very much. "I love the president. I want to make it clear," Musk said. “I think President Trump is a good person.”

“The president has been hit with such an unfair attack in the media – it’s really outrageous,” he continued. "I spent a lot of time with the President at this point and I never saw him do anything mean, cruel or wrong. Never once."

The two laughed at the claims of some critics that Musk usurped Trump's authority as president. "I feel like I'm interviewing two brothers," Hannity said.

During the 2024 election cycle, Musk spent at least $288 million to help Trump and other Republican candidates be elected.

Musk said he would have supported Trump in the 2024 election, but the assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, accelerated the process last July. He publicly supported Trump after the incident at the time and shared a video of Trump raising his bloody fist at the rally on his social media platform X.

The U.S. Department of Efficiency’s Money Saving Object

Trump says Musk-led U.S. Department of Efficiency (DOGE) will cut " hundreds of billions" of dollars in "fraud" and other forms of waste from the federal budget - a figure that is far higher than most experts think is reasonable scope.

Jessica Riddle, a senior researcher at the Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank, said Musk said on X that he had discovered more than $50 billion in so-called waste and fraud, but further investigations into these claims show that the actual figures are more Nearly $4 billion.

Budget experts are extremely suspicious of the waste and fraud of "hundreds of billions" of dollars each year.

The Washington Post reported last week that the social security database released by DOGE on social media showed that a total of only $6 billion in waste per year. $4 billion of that comes from a proposed cap on the overhead of research paid by the National Institutes of Health to universities, medical centers and other grant recipients, which has been stopped by a judge.

Musk will avoid conflicts of interest

Trump told Hannity that if Musk's work to advise the federal government had a conflict of interest with any of his business activities, "he would not be involved."

“I never asked the president for anything,” Musk said, adding that he would evade if there was any conflict of interest.

Trump made a similar comment to reporters Tuesday when asked about the role of Tesla CEO and founder of SpaceX. Musk compared his current situation to "having a rectal examination every day."

As the Washington Post reported, Musk actively worked in the White House without giving up his business role, a very unusual arrangement that has raised many questions.

Commitment not to cut social security, Medicare and Medicaid

In the interview, Trump promised that he would not touch on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits as the Republicans sought to cut federal spending and enact a tax bill of about $5 trillion. He reiterated the campaign commitment, which would make it more difficult for Congressional Republicans to push for an extension of the 2017 tax cuts.

These three social security programs are the largest share of federal spending each year. Without cutting the benefits of these programs, Republicans will be nearly impossible to achieve the dual goals of substantial tax cuts and spending cuts.

Trump told Hannity: "Social security will not be touched except for fraud and other situations - instead it will be strengthened, not cut. Medicare, Medicaid...that will not be affected in any way. ”

Reaffirming corruption at the United States Agency for International

Development

During the interview, Hannity showed a graph on the screen claiming to show “suspicious spending” by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) — including some falsified spending claims.

"All of this goes abroad. The money is not spent here in the United States, it is not used to improve schools, maintain law and order," Hannity commented.

The Washington Post investigates several so-called USAID spending mentioned in a recent press release by the Trump administration. Fox News’ charts refer to foreign aid allegedly used to fund Ireland’s “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) musicals,” Colombia’s “trans opera” and Peru’s “trans comic books” — all of which The statements are inaccurate.

The chart also mentions funding to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace in Serbia. This statement is largely accurate.