Trump reveals he looked for 'somebody smarter' than Elon Musk to head DOGE

US President Donald Trump has made a big revelation about getting Tesla CEO Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) established to oversee and cut government spending. In an interview with Fox News, the President admitted that they "looked for somebody smarter" than Musk to lead DOGE.

This was Musk and Trump's first joint interview on a major TV network since the latter returned to the White House last month.

The President made the revelation while reflecting on what made him get the world's richest man to get onboard as his administration's "chief cost cutter".

"He’s good... I wanted to find somebody smarter than him. I searched all over. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t find anyone smarter, right? So, we had to, for the country, settled on this guy," Trump told Fox News's Sean Hannity.

In response, Musk said with a smile, "Well, thanks for having me."

DOGE has swept through federal agencies since Trump put Musk in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of the President's dramatic overhaul of government, which has included thousands of job cuts.

Several lawsuits have been filed by Democratic-led US states and liberal-leaning legal groups seeking to prevent DOGE from accessing government systems.

In the interview, the President praised the DOGE team for their work, but also took a potshot at how the members dressed "worse" than the tech billionaire.

"What (Musk) does is he takes the executive order and, with his hundred geniuses, he's got some very brilliant young people working for him that dress much worse than him, actually," Trump quipped. "They dress in just t-shirts."

Trump continued to heap praises on Musk during the joint sit-down and also admitted that while he only knew the Tesla CEO only “a little bit” before last year, he admired the way the latter “fought hard”.

“I wanted great people. And he’s a great person. He’s an amazing person. He’s also a caring person. He’s a good person, a very good person, and he wants the country to do well."

The President also noted that Musk would not be involved in any DOGE decisions where he might have a conflict of interest. “If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved. I mean, I wouldn’t want that, and he wouldn’t want it.”

On his part, Musk described Trump's landslide victory in the 2024 presidential election as “an opportunity to fix the system”.

“The president cared. The president was competent. And so when you add more competence and caring, you get a better deal for the American people.”