Trump ‘loses mind’ in front of reporters in effort to defend his ‘bestie’ Elon Musk
Florida – Since publicly announcing his support and pouring millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign in the months prior to the early November presidential election, Elon Musk has become the most prominent figure in the Trump administration, now also leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This newly formed department is at the forefront of the battle against high government spending and is currently in the focus of the media due to its constant efforts to fire thousands of federal workers deemed unnecessary.
Musk, known for his aggressive business approaches, is facing a lot of criticism for doing the ‘dirty work’ in the Trump administration. This results in Trump and Musk making frequent public appearances together, supporting the work of DOGE. In addition, Trump has to defend his ‘bestie’ in almost every single press conference, as the president is literally flooded with questions by reporters about Musk on each and every possible occasion.
In a recent conversation with the media at his Florida residence, President Donald Trump gave a confusing and disorganized response when asked about a court case stating that Elon Musk is not an employee of DOGE, despite earlier contradicting White House claims.
A reporter asked Trump to clarify Musk’s position within DOGE during a signing ceremony for executive actions, highlighting the discrepancy between his title as “head of DOGE” and the official statement in a recent court document claiming he had no employee status or decision-making authority inside the company. Trump’s response shifts into irrelevant subjects, including a dubious assertion on the count of centenarians getting Social Security payments.
“Elon Musk is. Yeah. Yeah, Elon is to me a patriot,” Trump said, sidestepping the direct question about Musk’s employment status. “So, you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot.”
Trump then unexpectedly shifted the focus of his response to broader and statistically unlikely claims about Social Security demographics.
“But look at this, from 90 to 99. Social Security, 6 million, 54,000 people. Well, that’s okay. Maybe that’s possible. You know, 92, to 90, 99, maybe it’s possible. That’s a lot of people, though, at that,” Trump speculated.
He continued with escalating figures, “But people that live to 100 to 109, 4,734,000. Wow. That’s a lot. That means over 100 years old. 4 million people. I don’t know.”
The president’s comments grew increasingly bewildering as he claimed an implausibly high number of centenarians.
“I know there’s so many. I know people that are doing great in their 90s, but not too many people over 100, but over 120 from 120 years old. People that are 120 years old, up to 129, 3,472,000 people,” Trump said.
“Wow! You know, that can’t possibly be because the record is like I think as one person, a woman lived to 127, but they have 3472,” Trump added.
Trump’s protracted digression left the question unanswered since it did not bring back the original concern regarding Musk’s official involvement at DOGE. His reference of the inflated count of elderly individuals supposedly living beyond 120 seemed to highlight the disorganizing and sometimes conflicting character of his government’s policies.
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Following Trump’s remarks, the White House has not yet formally clarified anything; hence, the public and media are left to speculate about the real circumstances underlying Elon Musk’s engagement with DOGE and the strange numbers Trump offered about centenarians. Rather than offering clarity, the conversation at Mar-a-Lago threw additional uncertainty on an already complex scenario on Musk’s position with DOGE and the government’s management of factual information.
