Washington DC:

US President Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk sat down for their first joint interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity during which the Republican and his adviser were full of praise for each other. The pair talked on various issues including Musk’s role as an advisor to the President and the White House’s stance on his influence.

Trump stressed that Musk wouldn’t be involved in any decisions involving his companies, which the South African-born billionaire seconded saying his primary role was to provide technological support to the President.

Elon Musk told Sean Hannity that he “hasn’t asked the president for anything ever,” seeking to reassure listeners that he would recuse himself from any political decisions that involved his companies. Musk’s companies, especially SpaceX hold many lucrative government contracts and work directly with the US space agency NASA.

Donald Trump also reiterated that Musk wouldn’t be involved in any decision-making saying he not allow him to work on government projects that conflicted with his work for his private companies.

Musk said those worried about his power as an unelected advisor to the president should be more concerned about the thousands of unelected federal employees in the government’s civilian workforce. “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, not a democracy,” he said.

Wearing a t-shirt that read “tech support,” the billionaire stressed that his primary role was to provide technological support to the president.

Trump praised Musk’s efficiency in executing executive orders, saying, “He gets the executive order done. There used to be signed executive orders, but no work got done. He and his genius team make sure they are executed.”

Musk also talked about his so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (“DOGE”) and said that with it the Trump administration aims “to try to get a trillion dollars out of the deficit.”

“I think he’s going to find a trillion dollars,” Trump seconded, saying he believed it would only be a “small shortage of fraud, waste and abuse really in government spending.”

He also reassured voters saying social security would not be affected by the cuts, as he has often repeated, and that abolishing the Department of Education would send school control back to the states.

“Social Security won’t be touched, other than fraud or something – we’re going to find it’s going to be strengthened – but won’t be touched,” Trump said, adding, “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be … it’s not going to be touchable.”

Hannity also asked the pair about the social media platform, X’s, recent $10m settlement with the president, a question which was dismissed by both Trump and Musk as unimportant.

“I left it up to the lawyers,” Musk said.

“I think it’s very low … I was looking to get much more money than that, so you gave him a discount,” Trump said.

Hannity noted that an assassination attempt was made on the Republican candidate Trump’s life the day Musk endorsed him for the President. The Tesla CEO acknowledged that and praised Trump’s “bravery” in the face of threat. 

“Well, I mean, — this is how you know someone’s true character, because everyone can say they’re brave, but the president was actually shot.  Okay?  Courage under fire.  “Fight, fight, fight,” blood streaming down the face.  That’s true courage.  You can’t fake that.”

Washington DC:

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday sat for his first interview since returning to the White House and targetted his predecessor former President Joe Biden for issuing several pardons for family members and officials on his last day in office. Mr Trump claimed he was given the option to pre-emptively pardon himself at the end of his first term, but chose not to.

“I was given the option, they said, ‘Sir, would you like to pardon everybody, including yourself?'” Mr Trump told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday.

“I said I’m not going to pardon anybody, we didn’t do anything wrong. And we had people that suffered, they’re incredible patriots,” he said.

When asked how he felt about returning to the Oval Office, the President said, “Well, it was a lot of work and as you know, I felt that we shouldn’t have had to necessarily be here.”

Insinuating that had he been re-elected in 2020, Mr Trump stated, “It could have been done, a lot of work could have been done, it would have been over.”

Adding to his claim, the President said, “We wouldn’t have inflation, we wouldn’t have had the Afghanistan disaster, we wouldn’t have October 7 in Israel where so many people were killed and you wouldn’t have a Ukraine war going on. But with all that being said, I think it’s bigger. It’s bigger than if it were more traditional.”

President Trump also asserted that America’s problems are “all solvable,” touting the “very unified” Republican caucus in Congress.

“They’re all solvable problems … with time, effort, money – unfortunately – but they’re all solvable,” Trump asserted.

“We can get our country back…But if we didn’t win this race, I really believe our country would have been lost forever,” he added.

The President said that he “might” have to cut off federal funds to “sanctuary cities”– a term used for municipalities that limit or deny their cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law.

“We’re trying to get rid of them. We’re trying to end them. And a lot of the people in those communities don’t want them,” Trump said.

When asked if he would cut off their money, the President said, “I might have to do that. Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do.”

The Republican also brushed off security concerns related to the TikTok app, and said, “You can say that about everything made in China.”

“We have so many things made in China. So why don’t they mention that? The interesting thing with TikTok though is you’re dealing with a lot of young people. Is it that important for China to be spying on young people? Young people watching crazy videos and things,” he added.