WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the Chair of the Department of Government Efficiency and also someone the White House describes as a senior adviser to the president, praised each other and strongly defended the DOGE work amid mounting criticism and controversy over its rapid actions.

Musk referenced President Trump’s negotiation skills when talking about the group’s mission to slash government spending.

“When the president was shown the outrageous bill for the new Air Force One and then negotiated it down if the president had not applied competence and caring, the price would’ve been 50% higher,” Musk said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“When you add more competence and caring, we get a better deal for the American people.”

DOGE’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce have resulted in the dismantling of agencies and mass layoffs. The group has the full backing of Trump and the White House, while the President seemed to enjoy the speed at which the group was working.

“He said when you sign these executive orders they don’t get done, and maybe the most important ones, and he would take that executive order that I’d sign and he would have those people go to whatever agency it was and say when are you doing it, get it done, get it done,” Trump said.

DOGE’S mission to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse,” a seeming catchall term that’s become a rallying cry for Conservatives, has led to some errors and missteps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is attempting to rehire workers laid off who were working on the bird flu crisis, and a similar issue arose with safety workers involved with nuclear weapons. The New York Times reported a significant error in DOGE’s savings claims, where an $8 billion savings from a canceled contract was $8 million.

Court cases are increasing, and there is growing pushback from Congressional Republicans. Axios described it as a “Growing DOGE Revolt” from GOP lawmakers concerned about the group’s pace. Critics argue that bypassing Congress could constitute executive overreach.

“It’s breaking the law and it’s doing so without any accountability or oversight and at this point, even what limited oversight Congress has deigned to have in this instance, it’s more or less acted as a rubber stamp, allowing all of this to go through,” said Benjamin Radd, a political scientist at UCLA.

Musk mentioned the possibility of sending $5,000 checks directly to taxpayers if his ambitious $2 trillion government savings goal is achieved, though that decision would ultimately rest with Congress.

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