Elon Musk responded to the ‘hostile takeover’ of the US government in his first press conference from the Oval Office.

The Tesla CEO made an unexpected appearance at the White House on Tuesday where he covered topics such as restoring democracy, self-policing, current politics and social security fraud.

The X account called ELON CLIPS shared the full interview with timestamps on topics that were addressed.

Standing beside President Donald Trump, Musk defended his sweeping cost-cutting measures and denied accusations of a ‘hostile takeover’ of the US government.

The world’s richest man wore a black Make America Great Again cap and had his young son, named X Æ A-Xii (X, for short) – on his shoulders for part of the conference.

Musk addressed concerns about his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the agency tasked with slashing federal spending and workforce numbers. Trump had Musk’s back by signing an order to grant more authority to DOGE and instructing the heads of government agencies to comply with it.

Democrats have allegedly criticised the agency for not being transparent, and legal issues have also slowed down its work.

However, Musk described using ‘common sense’ measures that are neither ‘draconian or radical’ to tackle the government cuts.

“The people voted for major government reform and that’s what the people are going to get,” the 53-year-old said. “That’s what democracy is all about.”

He also took aim at what he called an ‘unelected, fourth, unconstitutional branch of government’ that he said has ‘more power than any elected representative’ – referring to federal employees who he believes hold too much power over elected reps.

“It’s not optional for us to reduce the federal expenses,” Musk continued. “It’s essential. It’s essential for America to remain solvent as a country.”

Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty

Other clips of Musk being questioned about how he was going to police himself whilst he’s now in a ‘place of conflict.’

He explained that ‘everything they will be doing’ will be ‘public’ so everyone will have ‘full transparency’ behind the scenes.

When pressed on how he plans to cut the federal budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion, the SpaceX founder boiled it down to two key things: ‘competence and caring.’

He also touched on his SpaceX and Defense contracts where Musk clarified that his companies are working with the government to strengthen national security while pushing technological advancements.

“I fully expect to be scrutinised,” he added. “It’s not like I think I can get away with something.”

Viewers of the press conference have been quick to rally behind Musk writing: “DOGE for the win” and “Trump is extremely lucky to have Elon on his team, its an absolute blessing.” 

As the father of Elon Musk, Errol Musk has something of a tumultuous relationship with his son. Musk Sr. has frequently spoken out about their time together, while his son has also given the odd insight into his upbringing. When Joshua Rubin recently asked Errol whether Elon had been a good father on his Wide Awake Podcast, the former defiantly said, “No, he hasn’t been a good dad,” and said the children have spent too much time with nannies.

Not one to keep family politics a secret, Errol Musk has recently revealed more to Ukrainian-American interviewer DJ Vlad. As well as discussing the controversial romantic relationship between him and his own stepdaughter, Musk spoke about his son’s former political stance and how he once had no love for Donald Trump.

Errol Musk reveals that his son wasn’t always a fan of Donald Trump (Anna Moneymaker / Staff / Getty)

Referring to a time not long before the 2016 Presidential Election when Trump won against Hillary Clinton, Errol explained how his sons Kimbal and Elon Musk confronted him over his support of the Republican leader. Elon ended up falling out with his father, as Errol explained it all went down during his 70th birthday celebrations. Over dinner, The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau reportedly asked Errol about his support for Trump.

With the room apparently laughing at Errol, he said: “He’s [Trump] just like us…in my mind, he’s doing the same kind of work I always did, property development, and he’s much bigger than I’ve ever been.

“It’s great to see somebody who’s not a career politician doing this kind of thing.”

With some coarse language, Errol Musk says the lunch came to a ‘grizzly’ end. After being left on his own, Errol says Kimbal and Elon came back to him and continued: “Elon said, ‘Trump is evil’, and so on.

“Very matter of fact, saying, ‘Look he’s evil, get it into your head.'”

Errol maintains that his sons left and it was never mentioned again. It seems ironic given Elon Musk’s current position as the President’s so-called ‘First Buddy’ and new role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk recently stole the limelight from the POTUS when he and his son hosted a press conference at the Oval Office.

Way back when, Elon Musk was vocally against Trump ahead of the 2016 election, telling CBS: “I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”

Jump forward to 2025, DJ Vlad referred to Musk as Donald Trump’s ‘best friend’. A chuckling Errol said: “It’s funny, it’s weird, that’s really weird.”

These days, Elon Musk has gone as far as professing his ‘love’ for Mr. Trump, suggesting that time can heal (almost) all wounds.

Experts have said that Sam Altman might ‘not be able to ignore’ Elon Musk’s offer of $97 billion to buy OpenAI from him.

The two tech moguls, who both co-founded OpenAI back in 2015, have been feuding in recent years.

Musk has made his disapproval of the company’s move from non-profit to for-profit very clear.

Elon Musk has made an offer to buy OpenAi (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Tesla boss had previously said: “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.

“We will make sure that happens.”

And it seems that Musk believes he is the man to complete that task, offering Altman $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, despite it being most recently valued at $157 billion.

However, Altman wasn’t interested, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Musk, who bought Twitter back in 2022 for $44 billion, was quick to fire back, calling Altman a ‘swindler’.

There certainly doesn’t appear to be any love lost between the two billionaires, but experts believe that Altman might have no choice but to take Musk up on his offer.

Speaking to Reuters, Gil Luria, who is an analyst at DA Davidson, said: “The offer seems to be backed by more credible investors. OpenAI may not be able to ignore it.

“It will be the fiduciary responsibility of OpenAI’s board to decide whether this is a better offer, which could call into question the offer from SoftBank.”

The offer could throw a spanner in the works for OpenAI’s fundraising, and if that wasn’t enough, last year Musk also sued both OpenAI and Altman.

In the lawsuit, Musk accused them of going back on promises to develop AI carefully and make it freely available.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman have been feuding in recent years (Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

He also claimed that they were breaching a contract by making the move towards profit.

The request by Musk for a court order to block OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company has not yet been ruled on by a judge.

However, US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has said that she would not block the case from going to a jury trial.

The SpaceX CEO launched xAI as a direct rival to OpenAI in March 2023.

He’s also been critical of the $500 billion OpenAI-led project that was announced by Trump at the White House.

The aim for the project is to fund infrastructure for artificial intelligence in order to beat rival nations in the development of AI technology.

Trump revealed that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle would create a joint venture called Stargate.

As Stargate, the group intends to build data centers, which will also create more than 100,000 jobs in the US. 

President Donald Trump has responded to Elon Musk’s plan for thousands of dollars in ‘DOGE dividends’ to be refunded to Americans.

Musk made the suggestion along with his supporters to cut a check for Americans for the ‘savings’ that have allegedly been made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

And it looks like Trump is a fan of the idea.

Speaking at a conference in Miami on Wednesday (February 19), the president backed the Tesla boss’ plan to give 20% of the money saved straight back into the pockets of the American taxpayers.

President Trump appears to be in favor of Musk’s idea (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump said: “The numbers are incredible, Elon. So many billions, it’s billions, hundreds of billions. We’re thinking of giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% to pay back debt, pay down debt.

“By doing this, Americans will be telling us where there’s waste, they’ll be reporting it themselves.”

So far, it hasn’t been made clear where the remaining 60% of savings will go.

Most of the federal spendings reductions made by DOGE have come from canceling contracts and making mass layoffs of government staff.

The organization, which is not technically a government department and is instead an outside advisor, is facing a slew of lawsuits.

Jessica Riedl, who is a senior fellow at right-leaning think tank Manhattan Institute, spoke to The Washington Post where she said: “Given the very small share of federal spending that has been reduced, the American people could possibly take their dividend to Starbucks for half off of one coffee.

President Trump spoke about the plan in Miami (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“When the budget deficit is $2 trillion and Congress is going to add hundreds of billions of dollars more, any savings should go to deficit reduction, rather than another tax rebate.”

James Fishback, who is the CEO of investment firm Azoria, has claimed that 78 million households that pay federal income taxes would each receive $5,000 under the plan, which would involve Musk chopping down federal spending by a whopping $2 trillion.

Fears have grown over where those cuts would be made in order to achieve this new budget, with many people worrying that this could impact vital things like Medicare benefits payments.

On X, formerly Twitter, Fishback wrote: “Our proposal for the president is simple: Taxpaying households should receive $1 for every $5 of total savings that DOGE delivers.”