WASHINGTON – The most powerful adviser of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, made a rare public appearance in the White House on Tuesday to defend the fast and extensive cuts that he pushes over the federal government while acknowledging that there have been mistakes and will be more .
Musk stood next to the determined agency with his young son when Trump praised the work of Musk with his government efficiency department To lower the expenses And while the president has signed an executive order to continue to shrink the federal workforce.
Despite concern that he is gathering inexplicable power With little transparencyMusk described himself as an open book. He joked that control over his vast influence on federal agencies Was like a ‘daily proctology exam’.
Despite the promise of Musk to be ‘maximum transparent’, the White House dismissed the Inspector General for the American Agency for International Development on Tuesday, one day after the Waakhond office warned that the dismantling of USAID almost had made it impossible to check $ 8.2 billion in humanitarian funds.
Musk, who first asked for reporters since he joined the Trump administration as a special government employee, defended the work of Doge as ‘common sense’ and ‘not draconic or radical’.
“People voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get,” he said. “That is what democracy is all about.”
Musk, the world’s richest person and the owner of the social media platform X, said he tried to “be as transparent as possible” and claimed that the work of the organization was shared on X and on the website of Doge. However, the doge website has no information and the messages on X miss many details, including which programs are cut and where the organization has access.
Musk acknowledged, in response to a question, that some of the claims he has made about government programs and expenditure have been wrong.
“Some things I say will be incorrect and need to be corrected. So nobody can hit 1,000, “he said, adding that he would act quickly to correct errors.
He acknowledged that Doge could also make mistakes.
“We’re going quickly, so we’ll make mistakes, but we’ll also solve the mistakes very quickly,” said Musk.
Musk said there are some good people in federal bureaucracy, but they must be responsible. Musk referred to the federal bureaucracy as a ‘non -chosen’ fourth branch that ‘had more power than any elected representative’.
Trump and Musk force federal employees to resign in exchange for financial incentives, although their plan is currently on hold While a judge assesses his legality. The deferred dismissal program, usually described as a buy -out, would enable employees to stop and still be paid until 30 September. Administration officials said that more than 65,000 employees have accepted the offer.
A facts of the White House about the signed implementation order said that agencies will undertake plans for a large -scale reduction of strength and determine which components (or agencies themselves) can be eliminated or combined because their functions are not required by law. “
It also said that agencies “should not hire more than one employee for every four employees who deviate from the federal service.” There are plans for exceptions when it comes to immigration, law enforcement and public safety.
Hundreds of people gathered for a rally on Tuesday on the other side of the American Capitol to support federal employees.
Janet Connelly, a graphic designer at the Department of Energy, said that they are fed up with the e -mails of the Office of Personnel Management to encourage people to take the deferred dismissal program.
She tried to use her spam settings to filter out the E emails, but it didn’t help. Connelly said she has no plans to accept the offer.
“I didn’t trust it from the start,” she said.
Connelly said she thinks her work is trying to do an important service for the American public.
“It is too easy to tackle us,” she said.
Others have said that fear and uncertainty have implemented the federal workforce.
“They are worried about their job. They are worried about their families. They are also worried about their work and the communities they serve, ”said Helen Bottcher, a former employee of the Environmental Protection Agency and the current trade union leader in Seattle.
Bottcher participated in a press conference organized by Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington.
Murray said that employees “earn better than threatened, intimidated and pushed the door by Elon Musk and Donald Trump.” She also said that “we actually need these people to stay in their job or that things are going to break.”
A government lawyer, who spoke with the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because of the fear of retaliation, said it was a frightening time to be a federal employee.
She said people worry that their phones and computers are followed. She is a single mother with a young daughter and her father encourages her to take a safer job in the private sector.
But she is skeptical about the deferred dismissal program and emphasizes that accepting the offer means that employees cannot sue if they are not paid what they are promised.
The idea, she said, was insane.
—Chris Megerian and Michelel L. Price, Associated Press