Musk claims transparency during White House appearance defending DOGE's work

Elon Musk speaks as his son X Æ A-Xii and US President Donald Trump look on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 11, 2025. JIM WATSON / AFP

President Donald Trump's most powerful adviser, Elon Musk, made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday, February 12, to defend the swift and extensive cuts he's pushing across the federal government while acknowledging there have been mistakes and will be more.

Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk with his young son as Trump praised Musk's work with his Department of Government Efficiency to slash spending and as the president signed an executive order to continue downsizing the federal workforce.

Despite concerns that he’s amassing unaccountable power with little transparency, Musk described himself as an open book. He joked that the scrutiny over his sprawling influence over federal agencies was like a "daily proctology exam."

Despite Musk’s pledge to be "maximally transparent," the White House on Tuesday fired the inspector general for the US Agency for International Development, a day after the watchdog’s office warned that the DOGE-directed dismantling of USAID had made it all but impossible to monitor $8.2 billion in humanitarian funds.

Musk, taking questions from reporters for the first time since joining the Trump administration as a special government employee, defended DOGE's work as "common sense" and "not draconian or radical." "The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get," he said. "That’s what democracy is all about."

Musk, the world’s richest person and the owner of the social media platform X, said that he was trying to be "as transparent as possible" and claimed that the organization's work was shared on X and on DOGE's website. However, the DOGE website has no information, and the posts on X are lacking many details, including which programs are being cut and where the organization has access.

Musk acknowledged, in response to a question, that some of the claims he's made about government programs and spending have been wrong. "Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. So nobody can bat 1,000," he said, adding that he would act quickly to correct errors. He acknowledged DOGE could be making errors as well.

Trump and Musk are pushing federal workers to resign in return for financial incentives, although their plan is currently on hold while a judge reviews its legality. The deferred resignation program, commonly described as a buyout, would allow employees to quit and still get paid until September 30. Administration officials said more than 65,000 workers have taken the offer.