Musk and Trump appear in the oval office to speak Doge: NPR

President Trump and Elon Musk appeared on Tuesday at the Oval Office, where they defended their efforts to promulgate radical changes in the federal government and limit expenses.

Their joint appearance came while Trump has signed an executive decree providing new advice to the federal agencies on the implementation of the Musk Government Department (DOGE), pressure to reduce what Musk And Trump characterize excessive government spending.

Addressing journalists with Musk by his side, Trump said that Dog has already led to the discovery of “billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse”, adding that the final count could possibly reach so high That “almost a dollars billion.” But the president and the musk offered few details on how they came to these estimates.

Tuesday’s order provides new details on how government agencies will work with Doge to reduce the size of the federal workforce, and calls the heads of federal agencies to “quickly undertake preparations to initiate reductions in Force on a large scale “. The prescription has not specified a range of the number of workers can be affected and lose jobs.

The command also defines new directives on hiring. He indicates that each agency should not hire an employee for all four employees who leave. In addition, the order calls on agency leaders to consult a “Doge’s team” around hiring approvals.

The changes do not apply to military staff, according to the order, and allow exemptions from positions related to “national security, internal security or public security responsibilities”.

The order follows a series of movements from the Trump administration in accordance with Musk’s work. In the three weeks that followed the assertion, Musk decided to reduce the billions of federal spending and actually closed the work of government institutions such as the American agency for international development. The movements aroused a cascade of legal challenges and triggered uncertainty among federal workers Because they await additional actions of the DOGE effort.

Trump and Musk approached a range of criticism about Doge, to know if his work required the authorization of the Congress, to the administration would comply with the judicial orders against the initiative.

Federal courts have already prevented DOGE staff from accessing the sensitivity of the Treasury Materials department and in a separate decision on Monday, A federal judge in Rhode Island said the administration was not in full compliance with a prescription blocking its efforts to suspend payments for subsidies and other federal programs.

Asked about the challenges of the court against the actions of Doge, Trump acknowledged that he would respect the decisions rendered by the federal judges.

“I always respect the courts. Always remain through them, and we will appeal,” he said.

Musk spoke for the majority of the appearance of about 30 minutes, wearing a trench and a black hat “Make America Great Again”. Standing a few feet from the president, who was sitting behind the resolved office, Musk was invited to respond to criticisms that argue that he does not work transparently and exercises too much power over the government.

“People voted for a major government reform, and that’s what people will get,” he said. “They will get what they voted for.”

Musk also said that DOGE “was trying to be as transparent as possible” and said all DOGE actions were published online.

“Thus, all of our actions are maximum transparent,” said Musk.