In a joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, Elon Musk appeared to be full of praise for President Donald Trump. Amid growing concerns over a potential massive government power grab by Musk’s Department of Government Efficacy (DOGE), the Tesla boss gushed over the commander-in-chief.

“I love the president, I just want to be clear about that. I think President Trump is a good man,” Musk said. “The president has been so unfairly attacked in the media, it’s really outrageous. At this point, I’ve spent a lot of time with the president and not once have I seen him do something mean or cruel or wrong.” He claimed the two have become best friends.

Also, as previously reported, Musk compared people’s reaction to Trump as though they had “rabies” and waved his hands in the air like a zombie. Musk laughed at the way he used to be “adored” by the left but said they now suffer from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ – the condition he likened to rabies.

The interview, the first the tech billionaire and Trump have given together since the election saw them begin to work closely in the new government, began with Hannity asking Trump about his previous lawsuit against Twitter, which had recently settled for a reported $10 million.

“I sued from long before he had it [Twitter], and they really did a number on me. I sued and they had to pay a $10 million settlement,” Trump said. When asked if he was okay with that, Musk responded saying he left it up to the company’s lawyers and wanted them to do what was best.

The Fox News presenter pressed Trump for praise for Musk, while inviting Musk to divulge details of his backstory and career accomplishments. “I think the way to think of me is I’m a technologist, and I try to bring technologies that improve the world,” said Musk.

Flaunting a ‘tech support’ t-shirt, Musk quipped he was on hand to offer the president ” technology support.”

Meanwhile, Fox News host Sean Hannity said Trump and Musk “feel like brothers” in the gushing joint interview.

Hannity asked Musk and Trump to expand on the nature of their relationship – adding: “This is gonna be hard. I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here.”

Also in the interview, which was broadcast at 2am UK time – 9pm EST in the US – Musk revealed why he supported Trump to be the 47th president of the United States, as per TheMirrorUS.

The SpaceX CEO had initially announced his support on X after Trump faced an assassination attempt at an open-air campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. But in the interview, Musk said his endorsement was “sped up” after the event but he had planned to support him anyway.

Despite Trump’s resounding presidential victory, the US remains extremely divided and there is plenty of concern about steps the new administration has taken from immigration to the war with Ukraine. And not least over the power that Musk now yields with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, nicknamed DOGE. In the interview with Fox News, the host Sean Hannity stated: “I would think liberals would love the fact that you have the biggest electric vehicle company in the world.”

And Musk replied: “I used to be adored by the left, less so these days.” He continued “They call it Trump derangement syndrome, and you don’t realise how real this is until, it’s like you can’t reason with people.”

Musk described how he was at a friend’s birthday dinner when the subject of Trump came up. “It was a nice quiet dinner, everyone was behaving normally, and I happened to mention, this was before the election, just a week or two before … happened to mention the president’s name. It was like they got shot with a dart in the jugular that contained methamphetamine and rabies.”

He then started waving his arms around in the air in the manner of a zombie. “Like, guys? You can’t have, like, a normal conversation,” he continued. “It’s like they become completely irrational.” Hannity then turned to Trump who claimed that left-leaning media was trying to drive Musk and him apart.

“Elon called me, he said ‘They’re trying to drive us apart’ and I said ‘absolutely,” Trump revealed. “They said, ‘We have breaking news, Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight at 8 o’clock’.”

Over the last few weeks, Musk’s Department of Government has implemented significant cuts across various government agencies, prompting criticism from opponents who argue that the widespread layoffs of federal employees and the withholding of funds allocated by Congress are unlawful. Several of Musk’s initiatives and Trump’s executive orders related to DOGE have been halted by federal judges, including DOGE’s access to sensitive records from the Treasury Department.

The White House has recently attempted to downplay Musk’s involvement in DOGE, claiming that he serves as a senior advisor to President Trump rather than as a member of the department. Musk’s specific role could be crucial in the ongoing legal battle over DOGE’s access to government data, particularly as the Trump administration prepares to lay off thousands of federal workers.

Defining Musk as an advisor rather than the administrator in charge of daily operations at DOGE could aid the administration in its response to a lawsuit arguing that Musk wields excessive power for someone who is neither elected nor Senate-confirmed. This declaration was submitted on Monday as the Trump administration defends itself against a lawsuit filed by several Democratic states seeking to prevent Musk and the DOGE team from accessing government systems.

The plaintiffs contend that Musk exercises “virtually unchecked power” in violation of the Constitution. The Trump administration has clarified that Elon Musk is not an employee of DOGE and does not have “no actual authority to make government decisions himself,” according to Joshua Fisher, director of the White House Office of Administration, as stated in court documents.

The papers did not reveal the identity of the DOGE administrator, despite Musk’s promotion of their work on his social media platform X and during a public appearance at the White House.

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