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Trump, Musk emphasize the importance of 'full transparency' in DOGE efforts
By Madeline Coggins
Published February 19, 2025
President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk emphasized the role of "full transparency" in efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse in an exclusive interview on "Hannity."
"You know what's better than saying ‘Trust me’? It's just full transparency. So, what we're doing with DOGE, just go to DOGE.gov. You can see every single action that's been taken," Musk told Fox News host Sean Hannity during a segment that aired Wednesday.
Trump and Musk discussed a range of topics during their interview, including DOGE and the president's first 100 days in office.
Trump tapped Musk to lead DOGE with the aim of dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing regulations, cutting wasteful spending and restructuring federal agencies.
"To me, it was important for people to understand he's doing a big job. He's doing a very thankless job. It's really a thankless job, but he's helping us to save our country. Our country is in serious trouble, and I had to get the best guy," Trump said.
While the media has attempted to portray a rivalry between Trump and Musk, the president also assured viewers "if there's any conflict, he will stop it. But if he didn't, I'd stop it."
Since Trump took office, DOGE has targeted a number of bureaucratic arms, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education.
Recent DOGE actions, however, have been met with mounting scrutiny from many Democrats.
Musk responded to the critics, calling the response an "antibody reaction from those who are receiving the wasteful and fraudulent money."
The Tesla co-founder admitted that DOGE might make "some mistakes" and will not be "perfect," but he vowed to "fix the mistakes very quickly" to stay focused on addressing the nation's looming fiscal doomsday.
"If we don't solve the deficit, there won't be money for medical care, there won't be money for Social Security," Musk said. "We either solve the deficit or all we'll be doing is paying debt. It's got to be solved or there's no medical care, there's no Social Security, there's no nothing. It's got to be solved. It's not optional. America will go bankrupt if this is not done."
Musk added that "if the ship of America sinks, we're all going down with it."
"This idea that people can escape to New Zealand or some other place is false. If the central pillar of Western civilization, that is America, falls, the whole roof comes crashing down, and there is no escape," he stressed.
The Trump administration has been vocal about balancing the budget by the end of Trump's second term.
The president told Hannity the nation could see a balanced budget "potentially very quickly" between DOGE cuts and income from tariffs and similar economic policies.
"We could do it very quickly. We would have never done it if this didn't happen. Never. It would have never been — it would only get worse and worse, and ultimately, it would have exploded. This country was headed down a very bad track," Trump said.
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Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-musk-emphasize-importance-full-transparency-doge-efforts