Trump outlines Musk’s role as enforcer-in-chief

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump painted Elon Musk as his enforcer-in-chief on Wednesday, hailing the tech billionaire´s zeal in implementing the blizzard of executive orders the president has issued since returning to office.

In a joint interview broadcast on Fox News, the two men spent substantial time singing the other´s praises and dismissing concerns that Trump is overstepping his executive powers.

Trump has signed scores of executive directives in the past three weeks, many of which have been challenged in the courts as potentially unconstitutional.

Billionaire Musk, who was Trump´s top donor during his 2024 presidential campaign, was tasked with leading the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the declared goal of rooting out “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal spending.

“One of the biggest functions of the DOGE team is just making sure that the presidential executive orders are actually carried out,” Musk told Fox News.

In the interview, Trump insisted his policies -- including a wholesale onslaught on federal institutions -- should be implemented without delay and said Musk was instrumental in pushing them forward.

“You write an executive order and you think it´s done, you send it out, it doesn´t get done. It doesn´t get implemented,” Trump said.