Donald Trump raises eyebrows as he claims he sought ‘someone smarter’ than Elon Musk to lead DOGE

WASHINGTON, DC: It has been almost surreal to see Donald Trump and Elon Musk teaming up to cut government spending, however, it seems that the president was looking for someone "smarter" than the Tesla CEO at the helm.

In a headline-grabbing sit-down interview with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, Trump revealed that when it came to picking someone to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he went on a quest to find someone smarter than Elon Musk—and came up empty. 

Donald Trump wanted someone 'smarter' than Elon Musk to lead DOGE

“You know, I wanted to find somebody smarter than him,” President Donald Trump admitted while Elon Musk sat beside him during the interview. “I searched all over. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I really tried hard. I couldn’t find anyone smarter.”

Trump made his choice after an exhaustive search across the planet (or at least a couple of phone calls). “We settled on this guy,” he quipped, pointing to Musk.

The interview—taped at the White House last week—marked the first time the billionaire tech mogul and the 47th president sat down for a joint public appearance.

Trump made it clear that his second-term agenda is all about bringing in “great people”—and to him, Musk more than fits the bill. “I wanted great people. And he’s a great person. He’s an amazing person. He’s also a caring person," he said while gushing over the tech billionaire.

Trump admitted that he only knew Musk “a little bit” before last year but had been keeping an eye on the way he operated in the private sector. And the SpaceX CEO’s relentless approach clearly left an impression. “He’s a good person, a very good person, and he wants the country to do well,” Trump continued.

However, there was one big question lingering in the room—whether Musk’s own business ventures create a conflict of interest in his new role as the chief cost-cutter for the federal government.

Trump insisted that wouldn’t be an issue. “If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved,” the president assured. “I mean, I wouldn’t want that, and he wouldn’t want it.”

The president noted that his quest to get rid of electric vehicle mandates from the Biden era would probably hurt Musk’s bottom line, the New York Post reported.

Elon Musk's mission of cutting $1 trillion and clashing with establishment 

Elon Musk’s mission as the head of DOGE is to slash a staggering $1 trillion in federal spending. According to him, the key to making it happen is “competence and caring”—two qualities he believes Trump brings to the table.

“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 have been 50% higher — literally 50% higher,” Musk explained.

“The president cared. The president was competent. The price was not 50% higher as a result,” he continued. “And so when you add more competence and caring, you get a better deal for the American people.”

The DOGE initiative has already been shaking things up, with Musk’s team implementing deep cuts across multiple federal agencies to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.

However, it has not gone down well with everyone. This week, federal judge Tanya Chutkan shut down an attempt by Democrat-led states to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from laying off federal workers and accessing sensitive data across seven government agencies.

Over the past few weeks, DOGE has zeroed in on multiple government agencies, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Agriculture.

They’ve also embedded staffers inside the Treasury Department, where things got so tense that Social Security Administration acting Commissioner Michelle King resigned over the weekend. And now Musk’s “super geniuses” (as Trump calls them) are setting their sights on the Pentagon’s budget.

According to DOGE, Musk’s cost-cutting crusade has already saved taxpayers a jaw-dropping $55 billion.