Elon Musk joined Donald Trump in the Oval Office as the US president signed an executive order allowing the tech billionaire to make large-scale reductions in the federal workforce.
As head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory group, Mr Musk says he wants to add “common sense controls” to government and ensure taxpayer money is spent wisely.
The executive order requires government agencies to work with DOGE, in some cases so they can be “eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law”.
In addition, the agencies have been told to “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service”, with exceptions for immigration, law enforcement and public safety.
While carrying his son X Æ A-12 on his shoulders in the Oval Office, Mr Musk was asked by reporters to respond to accusations he is orchestrating a “hostile takeover” of government in a non-transparent way.
The Tesla CEO and owner of X said “the public voted for major government reform… and they’re going to get what they voted for. And that’s what democracy is all about”.
“We have this unelected, fourth unconstitutional branch of government, which is the bureaucracy, which has in a lot of ways, currently more power than any elected representative,” he added.
Mr Musk also spoke about what he described as a lack of Treasury controls. “Your tax dollars need to be spent wisely on things that matter to the people… it’s just common sense. It’s not draconian or radical”.
When challenged about what checks and balances are in place to ensure accountability for Mr Musk, who is unelected, he replied: “We are trying to be as transparent as possible… I don’t know of a case where an organisation has been more transparent”. (SkySports)