US President Donald Trump sought to deride Time magazine on Friday after it published a cover with tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk sitting behind the president’s desk in the Oval Office.
“Is Time Magazine still in business? I didn’t even know that. Elon is doing a great job. He’s finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste,” he said, referring to Musk leading Trump’s efforts to take a “woodchipper” to the federal workforce.
“He’s doing a very good job. I’m very happy with him.”
The cover shows Musk behind the Resolute Desk at the Oval Office as many question the extent of his influence over the federal government after he spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year to have Trump elected.
Trump tapped Musk to lead a commission known as the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been taking unprecedented steps to gain access to corners of the federal bureaucracy that were previously off-limits to all but the highest government officials.