Trump Says Media Will Not ‘Drive’ Him And Elon Musk ‘Apart’

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the media would not be successful in driving a wedge between him and his senior advisor, Elon Musk. 

Trump was asked about his relationship with Musk and the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project during an interview alongside Musk conducted by Fox News host Sean Hannity. Both men were effusive in their praise of each other and said that the media would not be able to break up their alliance. 

During the interview, Hannity said that the legacy media wanted a “divorce” between Trump and Musk, adding that “they want you two to start hating each other.” 

“Oh, I see it all the time,” Trump responded. “Actually, Elon called me, he said: ‘You know they’re trying to drive us apart?’ I said, absolutely.”

“It’s just so obvious,” he added. “They’re so bad at it. I used to think they were good at it, they’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president. Because I think nobody in history has ever got more bad publicity than me.”

“But you know what I have learned, Elon? The people are smart. They get it. They really see what’s happening,” Trump added. 

The White House said this week that Musk, who has widely promoted the work of DOGE, is an “employee of the White House Office” and not the DOGE administrator. 

Musk said during the interview that one of the “biggest functions” of the DOGE team was to make “sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out.” 

“I just want to point this out, this is a very important thing, because the president is the elected representative of the people so he’s representing the will of the people. And if the bureaucracy is fighting the will of the people and preventing the president from implementing what the people want, then what we live in is a bureaucracy and not a democracy,” Musk said. 

Musk also praised Trump, saying he had not seen him do anything “cruel or wrong.” 

“I think President Trump is a good man,” Musk said. “The president’s been so unfairly attacked in the media, it’s really outrageous.”

When asked about their relationship, Trump praised Musk for his work with Starlink providing internet service to hurricane victims and projects at SpaceX. 

“I respect him, I’ve always respected him. I never knew that he was right about certain things,” Trump said. “I wanted somebody really smart to work with me in terms of the country.”