President Trump & Elon Musk in the Oval Office: Full Remarks

President Donald Trump directed agencies to work with Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting effort to slash their workforces, according to a White House official, his latest move to gut the federal bureaucracy. Trump’s action orders agency heads to coordinate with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “significantly reduce the size of the government” and “limit hiring to essential positions,” according to a White House fact sheet seen earlier Tuesday by Bloomberg News. Agencies will be permitted to hire no more than one employee for every four workers leaving the government, the document said. Exceptions will be made for law enforcement, national security, immigration and public safety roles. It’s unclear if DOGE — an office within the White House — has the authority to enact mass dismissals. Musk on Tuesday made a rare appearance in the Oval Office alongside Trump to defend his approach, which has involved young staffers fanning across agencies, obtaining access to sensitive computer systems and employee data, and in some cases shuttering offices and placing workers on leave — all in an effort to reduce the size of government. The billionaire industrialist said without providing evidence that Treasury Department systems lacked “basic controls,” including measures preventing money going to entities on a “do-not-pay list.”  “It’s like just a massive number of blank checks just flying out of the building,” Musk said. Trump asserted DOGE had uncovered “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse,” again without substantiation. -------- Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube Weekdays 7am-6pm ET WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/BloombergRadio Subscribe to our Podcasts: Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN Bloomberg Surveillance: http://bit.ly/3OPtReI Bloomberg Intelligence: http://bit.ly/3YrBfOi Balance of Power: http://bit.ly/3OO8eLC Bloomberg Businessweek: http://bit.ly/3IPl60i Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app: Apple CarPlay: https://apple.co/486mghI Android Auto: https://bit.ly/49benZy Visit our YouTube channels: Bloomberg Podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/bloombergpodcasts Bloomberg Television: https://www.youtube.com/@markets Bloomberg Originals: https://www.youtube.com/bloomberg Quicktake: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergQuicktake