In a joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump said that he would allow Elon Musk to police himself on conflicts of interest and other possible corruption while leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
“If there’s a conflict, [Musk] won’t be involved,” Trump said, without explaining who—other than Musk—would be empowered to determine if a conflict of interest exists. Musk added that he was “getting a sort of daily proctology exam” and that his actions are being scrutinized.
But Musk and Trump also attempted to deflect criticism of DOGE’s egregious activities and promoted the conspiracy that there is an “unelected bureaucracy” running the country that DOGE has been uncovering.
DOGE is not an official government agency. It is an advisory commission authorized by Trump to lead an ongoing effort to purge government agencies and invade the privacy of millions of Americans via the IRS and Social Security systems. DOGE’s actions have triggered multiple lawsuits alleging that the group has broken federal laws.
The assertions from Trump and Musk were not challenged by Hannity, a longtime Trump cheerleader who has been described in the past by Trump staffers as the president’s “shadow chief of staff.”
Contrary to Trump and Musk’s claims, the unelected billionaire has already financially benefitted from Trump returning the presidency.
Existing government investigations into the actions of Musk’s companies like SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and X (formerly Twitter) have been stalled under Trump. Agencies charged with oversight of those companies have also been the subject of DOGE-initiated staff reductions.
Musk, who is the wealthiest man in the world and whose companies have a record of dodging taxes, is leading the team cutting back on IRS resources. The State Department recently edited publicly available procurement documents to remove Tesla’s name after criticism of a new government contract surfaced.
Democrats have raised the issue of these conflicts and recently launched a portal for whistleblowers to file reports on abuse of power, threats to public safety, and wrongdoing that may emerge from the actions of Trump and Musk.
At the same time, Trump is allowing Musk to punt on producing public financial disclosures during his time with DOGE, further obscuring how he could be profiting from his role.
In the cordial interview with Hannity, Trump also claimed that DOGE was uncovering “massive” amounts of waste within the government. But independent investigations of these claims have repeatedly shown that this isn’t true. For instance, DOGE recently asserted that $8 billion had been saved in the cancellation of a single government contract. In reality, the contract was for $8 million—99.9% less than the initial claim.
Hannity, however, was busy calling the two men “brothers” instead of challenging their false assertions that affect the lives of potentially billions of people.
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