Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The billionaire Elon Musk said in an extraordinary Oval Office appearance on Tuesday that he was providing maximum transparency in his government cost-cutting initiative, but offered no evidence for his sweeping claims that the federal bureaucracy had been corrupted by cheats and officials who had approved money for “fraudsters.”Answering questions from the media for the first time since his arrival in Washington to run the Department of Government Efficiency, Mr. Musk stood next to the Resolute Desk and asserted that his work was in the interest of the public and democracy. President Trump sat behind the desk, chiming in with approval as he let the world’s richest man expound for roughly 30 minutes on the rationale for the drastic overhaul of the federal bureaucracy.The goal is to “restore democracy,” Mr. Musk said. “If the bureaucracy’s in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?”Among Mr. Musk’s claims, which he offered without providing evidence, was that some officials at the now-gutted U.S. Agency for International Development had been taking “kickbacks.” He said that “quite a few people” in the bureaucracy somehow had “managed to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,” without explaining how he had made that assessment. He later claimed that some recipients of Social Security checks were as old as 150.“We are actually trying to be as transparent as possible,” Mr. Musk said, referring to postings by his team on his social media site, X. “So all of our actions are maximally transparent.”He continued, “I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization.”In reality, Mr. Musk’s team is operating in deep secrecy: surprising federal employees by descending upon agencies and gaining access to sensitive data systems. Mr. Musk himself is a “special government employee,” which, the White House has said, means his financial disclosure filing will not be made public.Mr. Musk’s appearance came at what was billed a presidential signing of new executive orders related to his cost-cutting initiative. The text of the executive order, which was made public after the event ended, ordered agency heads to pursue “large-scale” work force reductions and gave Mr. Musk’s team an expanded role in overseeing any subsequent hiring at certain agencies.The wide-ranging remarks by Mr. Musk came amid mounting criticism that he was operating with unchecked power and no accountability, questions that have been dogging the president when he speaks to reporters. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration’s rapid efforts to upend the bureaucracy, and several federal judges have ordered halts to the actions while the challenges are heard.Mr. Trump said Tuesday that with Mr. Musk’s team, he was simply following through with what he promised in his campaign: a radical overhaul of the federal government. Indeed, he pledged repeatedly on the campaign trail to root out what he called “the deep state” and to make it easier to fire civil servants — promises that drew robust backing from his supporters.But less central to his core pitch in 2024 was a plan he announced in September to have Mr. Musk lead a commission to audit the government and recommend broad changes. The effort was also described initially as operating “outside of government” in Mr. Trump’s statement about it. But after Mr. Trump won the presidency, Mr. Musk’s vision for the initiative expanded, and he allowed Mr. Musk to embed inside government by taking over a White House technology office.Mr. Trump attacked the judges who have ruled against his administration, saying he would abide by their decisions but would appeal rulings they made. A federal judge ruled this week that the administration had defied his order to release billions of dollars; the administration has filed an appeal.On his website X, Mr. Musk described a “judicial coup” to stop Mr. Trump.As he claimed more and more territory in Washington, Mr. Musk, who has echoed Mr. Trump’s hostility toward the media, had not answered questions from reporters since Election Day until Tuesday. Mr. Musk had spoken at a few technology conferences and on a Tesla earnings call, where he fielded a few inquiries from sympathetic questioners.On Tuesday, Mr. Musk, wearing a black “MAGA” hat that Mr. Trump appeared to have signed on its brim, seemed eager to defend his team’s work. As he answered questions, Mr. Musk’s 4-year-old son, X, stood between the two men when he was not hoisted on Mr. Musk’s shoulders or sitting on the floor. Mr. Trump often appeared to be staring at the child, relegated to something of a side character in his own office.Mr. Musk repeatedly rebuffed suggestions that he was operating without oversight.Asked about the possibility of his own conflicts of interest, given that some of Mr. Musk’s companies have contracts with agencies like the Defense Department, Mr. Musk said, “First of all, I’m not the one filing the contract.”“It’s the people at SpaceX or something,” said Mr. Musk, the founder of SpaceX.Over and over again, he asserted his intention to bring accountability to a civil service that he claimed had gone unchecked.The bureaucracy is an “unelected, fourth, unconstitutional branch of government, which has, in a lot of ways, currently, more power than any elected representative,” insisted Mr. Musk, who serves as an unelected appointee with vast reach across the government.“It does not match the will of the people,” he said.Mr. Musk, whose approach to cost-cutting at his own companies has been to reinstate spending if the cuts go too deep, said that mistakes might be made as he slashes the size of federal agencies. Should he make cuts that are gratuitous, the billionaire said, they would simply be reversed.“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. Nobody’s going to bat 1.000,” Mr. Musk said when asked about a false claim he had spread about foreign aid money for condoms. “We will make mistakes. But we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
