President Donald Trump stated he’s had “nice assist” from Elon Musk in chopping authorities fraud and abuse, regardless of the actual fact he’s not “gaining something” within the course of.
Throughout Sunday’s interview with Fox Information’ Bret Baier, Trump pointed to Musk and his authorities effectivity group, DOGE, and his administrative privileges within the Treasury Division’s cost system.
“I’ve had an amazing assist with Elon Musk, who’s been terrific,” Trump stated, including that in about 24 hours, he’s going to inform Musk to “go verify” the Division of Training to search out any “fraud and abuse” there.
“He’s going to search out the identical factor,” Trump stated, seemingly referring to Musk’s publish on X the place he wrote that Treasury staffers instructed him there was about $50 billion of “unequivocal and obvious fraud.” He didn’t, nonetheless, present any proof of that.
And Musk’s entry was blocked by a federal decide Saturday.
Requested by Baier if Trump trusts Musk, Trump evades the query and responds with, “Belief Elon? Oh. He’s not gaining something. In truth, I’m wondering how he can commit the time to it, he’s so into it.”
Trump might or might not belief Musk, however he does disagree with the decide’s block on the Division of Authorities Effectivity accessing knowledge from the Treasury Division.
“I disagree with it 100%,” Trump instructed Baier. “I feel it’s loopy, and we now have to resolve the effectivity downside. We’ve to resolve the fraud waste abuse, all of the issues which have gone on within the authorities. You check out the USAID, the sort of fraud in there … We’re speaking about a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} of cash that’s going to locations the place it shouldn’t be going.”
Trump additionally spoke briefly in regards to the tariffs he threatened on Canada and Mexico after Baier requested him when Individuals will begin to see inflation go down.
“No, I feel we’re gonna change into wealthy… look, we’re not that wealthy proper now,” Trump said. “We owe $36 trillion. That’s as a result of we let all these nations benefit from us. Similar factor, like, $200 billion with Canada. We owe $300 [billion], we now have a deficit with Mexico of $350 billion. I’m not gonna do this. I’m not gonna let that occur.”
Trump’s interview with Baier aired Sunday earlier than he’s set to attend the Tremendous Bowl in New Orleans. Trump would be the first sitting president to attend soccer’s greatest sport, a fact that surprised him, including that the nation has “taken on an all-new life” and he thought it might be a “good factor for the nation” to have the president there.
