Enjoying the Pinnacle of Power, Musk Holds Court on Trumps Stage

Three weeks into this administration, hardly a day seems to go by that does not produce a norm-busting moment at the White House.But the scene that played out in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon was among the wildest yet.President Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk while Elon Musk stood at his side and attempted to explain, for the first time in public since Inauguration Day, what it is he came to Washington to do.For weeks, he and his Dorito-dusted minions have burrowed deep inside the federal government, tearing the thing apart from within by sending workers packing and shutting down programs and entire agencies, testing if not exceeding the bounds of the law and the Constitution in the process.So far, the only explanations to be had about what they are doing or where they are going next have come in the form of brief or sometimes trolling messages on the social media platform Mr.

Musk owns or in opaque statements from administration officials.Dressed all in black, with a dark MAGA hat on his head and his young son fidgeting by his side or on his shoulders, Mr.Musk, seeming quite jolly about finding himself at the very pinnacle of power, sought on Tuesday to justify pushing tens of thousands of federal employees out the door by casting them as a collection of unelected and unaccountable managers of a wasteful and corrupt bureaucracy.Workers overseeing contracts were mysteriously getting rich, he asserted without any backing details or evidence.

Social Security was paying benefits to 150-year-olds.Taxpayers were being gouged.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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