Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who serves as President Trump’s senior adviser, said in a new interview that he and the president agree on 80 percent of issues.
On Fox News Channel’s “My View with Lara Trump,” the president’s daughter-in-law asked Musk to reflect on his relationship with the commander in chief.
“I do consider the president a friend. I think he considers me a friend and, you know, we get along very well,” Musk told Lara Trump on Saturday. “I think, probably, if you asked us both the same set of questions in two different rooms, 80 percent of the time we’d come up with the same answer.”
“Which is not to say that we always agree, but almost always agree,” Musk added, noting that they agree on “getting rid of waste and fraud in the government and ensuring the rule of law is followed.”
Musk’s special government status is set to expire May 30. He told Tesla investors late last month that he planned to wind down the amount of time he spends at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to devote more time to his other companies.
He told reporters last week he plans to scale back his work on DOGE to 1-2 days per week.
When asked last Wednesday whether that setup will also eventually end, Musk said it is “at the discretion of the president.”
Trump then said Musk was “invited to stay” at the White House as long as he wants, adding, “At some point, he wants to get back home to his cars.”
The president said Musk’s DOGE found $150 billion in cuts to the federal government, adding that he thinks “things being worked on” could double or triple that number. Musk said in January that the “best-case outcome” would be to make $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending.
Musk has also spearheaded efforts to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce. A report last week found that nearly half of all layoffs in the first four months of 2025 have been related to DOGE actions or their downstream impacts, including cuts at non-profits and education organizations.
A clear rift has emerged between the president and Musk over their positions on tariffs, however. Musk has said he hopes the U.S. and Europe eventually move toward a “zero-tariff situation,” while Trump has long backed a more protectionist approach to trade policy.
