POLITICS NEWS – Trump and Musk speak from the Oval Office to defend the new DOGE department

Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer

President Trump and Elon Musk appeared in the Oval Office together on Tuesday to defend their efforts to enact sweeping changes within the federal government and limit spending. Their joint appearance came as Trump signed an executive order that provided guidance for the implementation of Elon Musk’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This initiative has been characterized by Trump and Musk as a way to cut excessive government spending. 

Trump went on to address reporters, where he said that DOGE has already discovered “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.” Trump went on to say that the final tally could be “close to a trillion dollars.” President Trump and Musk offered no evidence as to how they had reached these conclusions. Tuesday’s executive order also provided new details on how government agencies were set to work with DOGE to reduce the size of the federal workforce and called upon the heads of various federal agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force.” However, the order did not specify a range of how many workers could be affected by the job losses or how these cuts would be determined.