While the internet has joked Elon Musk is the ‘real’ president of the United States, Donald Trump has revealed exactly what the tech mogul’s responsibilities are for the federal government.

The pair had a bit of a rocky start to their friendship but grew closer over Trump’s campaign trial in 2024 which has ultimately bagged the billionaire tech aficionado a cosy spot as a special government employee in the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The department is tasked with cutting government costs, modernizing federal technology, ending fraud and a waste of taxpayer money while improving overall governmental productivity.

For instance, an audit revealed the Air Force spent more than $1,200 replacing 25 reheatable coffee cups, per cup.

Still, Musk’s position has sparked somewhat of a controversy with the internet creating memes depicting Musk as the ‘president’ and Trump the ‘vice president’ as some critics question who is really running the country, claiming they never voted for Musk.

Campaigners argue they didn’t ‘vote’ for Elon Musk as he apparently takes on a key governmental role (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Now, in an exclusive interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday (February 18), the pair talked about their friendship and exactly what Musk does for the federal government.

The Tesla CEO initially said he was just ‘tech support’ for the president, even going so far as to don a black-and-white t-shirt with the phrase emblazoned on, but the 78-year-old president clarified that Musk’s job is to take on the bureaucratic process and ‘get it done’.

As we know, Trump is clearly a big fan of executive orders, having signed dozens in a matter of days into his presidency, but suggested there has been a lag in how they’re adopted – until Musk streamlined the process ‘with his 100 geniuses’.

Musk initially said he was just ‘tech support’ for Donald Trump (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In actuality, new White House documents reveal Musk, who is working for free in the department, isn’t technically part of it all, merely acquiring the title ‘senior advisor to the president’ which has ‘no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself’, reports AP.

Essentially, he’s not the key-decision-maker at DOGE that Trump made him out to be.

Still, the president also joked in the Fox interview that he picked Musk as his go-to man because he ‘couldn’t find anyone smarter’, going so far as to say the team even tried to find someone more intelligent than the SpaceX founder to no avail.

The pair recently spoke about their friendship (Fox News)

The pally interview also saw the duo compliment each other to the point Hannity said he felt he was ‘interviewing two brothers’.

So far, DOGE has cut billions in contracts to private firms that were awarded by the Education Department and the National Institutes of Health, which sits in harmony with Trump’s vision to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Musk also said: “I’m a technologist, and I try to make technologies that improve the world.”

“My t-shirt says tech support, because I’m here to provide the president with technology support,” he continued. “And now that may seem like, well, is that a silly thing? But actually it’s a very important thing, because the president will make these executive orders, which are very sensible and good for the country, but then they don’t get implemented.”

Elsewhere, Musk added: “I love the president. I think President Trump is a good man.”

Trump also praised Musk, describing him as a ‘leader’ and a ‘brilliant guy’.

“He’s got tremendous imagination,” Trump continued. “But he’s also a good person. He’s a very good person.”

POTUS Donald Trump and his ‘first buddy’ Elon Musk have shut down rumors that their friendship could be breaking down.

The President and the billionaire tech mogul grew closer over Trump’s campaign trial in 2024, ultimately bagging Musk a spot as a special government employee in the Department for Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Now, the 78-year-old Republican has put rumors to bed that the pair have fallen out.

In a sneak peek interview between the pair with Sean Hannity on Fox News that is yet to air, the reporter said the ‘media’ ran a ‘weaponization’ campaign against the POTUS but that Trump’s re-election ‘prove[s] that they have no power anymore’.

The journalist name dropped the New York Times and The Washington Post as well as cable news for ‘throwing everything’ at Trump during the campaign.

“Now I see they want you two to start – they want a divorce. They want you two to start hating each other,” Hannity continued. “President Elon Musk, for example.”

Hannity slammed rival news agencies for their coverage of Trump and Musk (Fox News/YouTube)

Trump replied: “Oh I see it all the time.”

“[The media] have many different things of hatred. Actually, Elon called me, he said: ‘You know they are trying to drive us apart?’ I said: ‘Absolutely’.”

Trump joked about the ‘President Musk’ jibes and his friend calling a cabinet meeting, to which Musk laughed.

“I said it is just so obvious,” the president continued. “They are so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it but they are actually bad at it because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.”

The president spoke about the media attempting to drive them apart (Fox News/YouTube)

Trump went on to say he believes no other president ‘in history’ has got ‘more bad publicity than me’.

“I could do the greatest things – I get 98 percent bad publicity,” he said before praising Hannity and his colleagues at Fox News, which is currently investigating alleged media bias from other networks.

Trump also said that the people ‘get it’ and can see ‘what is happening’ while the Tesla CEO agreed.

The bombshell interview comes after a Reuters piece reported on an alleged conflict between Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

Trump and Musk haven’t always had a rosy relationship either, from public disagreements to insulting words being exchanged on both sides.

In 2016, Musk said that his future buddy was ‘not the right guy’ to take over the White House.

The pals have had a rocky relationship over the years (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

A year later, he resigned from presidential advisory boards and slammed the POTUS for leaving the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Fast forward five years, their friendship was seemingly back on track after Trump described the SpaceX CEO as one of the world’s ‘greatest geniuses’. But he then backtracked six months later, referring to the South African as a ‘bulls*** artist’ when Musk revealed his intentions to buy Twitter.

Musk snapped back: “I don’t hate the man, but it’s time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”

Despite the spat, Musk reinstated Trump’s Twitter account and, by the end of 2023, appeared sympathetic to some of his policies – namely the US border wall with Mexico – before donating $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump Super PAC in the summer of 2024.

In August that year, Musk and Trump teased the Twitter owner could be head of a new ‘government efficiency’ group and in the fall, Trump went to Texas to witness SpaceX’s starship launch.

Media reports indicate that the pair spend ‘almost every day together’ with Musk calling himself ‘First Buddy’.

Donald Trump had a rather brutal response to the latest criticism he has been facing over the fate of federal employees.

President Donald Trump made it clear ahead of being elected that he would be doing things rather… differently.

Regardless of the feelings towards him, this certainly does appear to be the case, as he took to his own social media platform to address some of his critics.

People have taken issue with the latest move by the president and Elon Musk, as the tech billionaire sent out a mass email to federal employees essentially giving them an ultimatum.

Over the weekend on Saturday (February 22), Musk sent a message to federal staff and demanded they list five tasks they completed in the last week by 11.59pm on Monday – or resign.

Trump doesn’t seem so worried about his critics (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Explaining this move on Twitter, he said he sent the email to ‘see who had a pulse and two working neurons’.

Musk wrote: “This was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.

“Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will,”

On Truth Social, Trump chose to post an edited SpongeBob SquarePants meme clearly directed at those who were unhappy with the move.

The image showed SpongeBob scratching his head while looking at a notepad as he ticked off things on his to-do-list, seemingly meant to represent the federal workers.

The second panel of the image shows the ‘got done last week’ list and reads: “Cried about Trump. Cried about Elon. Made it into the office for once. Read some emails. Cried about Trump and Elon some more.”

While some people were outraged by the mocking response, others found it quite amusing.

One Twitter user wrote: “Trump is a real one. Never thought I’d say it but I love that orange tomato.”

Trump received a mixed response for his mocking meme (Donald Trump)

Another added: “Funniest dude ever to be in the White House.”

A third wrote: “Trump’s comedic genius is unparalleled and the libs are so triggered. Cry harder commies.”

However, a Trump critic responded to this news by saying: “How inconsiderate and cold hearted is that ? Especially when he’s the biggest crybaby ever.”

Another said: “This is a president? This is presidential? If you think this is funny or cool, you are just a stone cold loser.”

The president has now weighed in on Elon Musk’s controversial email with a stark warning to federal employees.

On Saturday (February 22), two million federal employees received a threatening email from Donald Trump‘s ‘First Buddy’, which demanded they outlined five tasks they’d completed in the last week – or else face not having a job to return to.

Musk, who heads up the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force, sent the email with a deadline of 11.59pm, Monday (February 24), and said those who failed to respond on time would be interpreted by the government as notice of their resignation.

Trump appears to be backing Musk’s controversial email (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The demand sent federal teams into a frenzy over the weekend with many department leaders, such as FBI director, Kash Patel, advising staff not to respond.

Another Pentagon official said it was the ‘silliest thing’ in their 40-year-long career.

But the billionaire tech mogul doubled down on his email, saying he wanted to identify ‘who had a pulse and two working neurons’ and to see who in the workforce actually checked their emails.

The 53-year-old also lashed out at the ‘incompetence’ of staff who didn’t respond to the ‘utterly trivial’ request by the deadline on Monday night and gave them a fresh ultimatum.

Musk wrote on Twitter: “The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers.”

The pair are reportedly close friends (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

“Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are,” he added.

The President also appeared to have supported the SpaceX founder’s plan, saying there was a ‘lot of genius’ to the email on Monday.

Musk subsequently posted that the deadline has been extended ‘subject to the discretion of the president’.

“[T]hey will be given another chance,” he wrote while reiterating those who fail or ignore them email ‘will result in [their] termination’.

President Trump has now spoken out about the situation during a meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Trump said: “We’re trying to find out if people are working, and so we’re sending a letter to people: Please tell us what you did last week.

“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working. And then if you don’t answer, like you’re sort of semi-fired, or you’re fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don’t even exist.”

The president’s backing comes as Musk’s DOGE is on a cost-cutting mission, which includes axing staff to reduce the size of the bureaucracy.