US President Donald Trump yesterday, Tuesday, asked US agencies to work closely with his adviser Elon Musk to reduce the number of federal employees, while the world’s richest man warned that the US is heading for “bankruptcy” if it does not make spending cuts.

With his 4-year-old son at his side or on his shoulders, Musk stood next to Trump in the Oval Office as the US president signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to work closely with him.

Afterwards Musk, wearing a hat with Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again“, took questions from reporters and defended his role as an unelected official who has been given unprecedented power by the US president.

“We have a $2 trillion deficit, and if we don’t do something about that deficit, the country is headed for bankruptcy,” the Tesla and SpaceX chief said.

The Republican president has appointed Musk to head a Government Efficiency Office (DOGE) aimed at reducing federal government spending. Already Musk’s team gained access to the Treasury Department’s sensitive payment system before a judge blocked it on Saturday.

“There are people working in the federal bureaucracy” but it should not be “autonomous”, it should be “accountable to the people”, the world’s richest man assessed.

Moreover, Musk dismissed accusations that he and his team were acting in secrecy. DOGE has not announced who works there, nor the actions it takes within federal agencies. It only announces numbers for the cuts it intends to make to specific agencies, without providing much detail.

“I fully expect to be under the microscope (…) it’s not that I want to get out of anything,” Musk replied.

In addition, Democrats are denouncing Musk’s actions, which they consider illegal because he has not been elected and has not been given an official government position, and are calling it an “aggressive takeover” of the government.

“I could not have asked for a clearer mandate than the one I got (…) from the people,” Musk said, referring to Trump’s election. “The people voted for major reforms in government. There should be no doubt about that.”

Musk also stressed that he talks almost daily with the US president.

After calling for a freeze on billions of dollars in subsidies, the Trump administration has called for a suspension of public sector hiring and allowed federal employees to resign while receiving severance pay.

The executive order Trump signed yesterday states that federal agencies will have to hire one person for every four that leave–with the exception of agencies related to maintaining order, public safety and dealing with illegal immigration – in order to reduce the number of federal employees.

At the same time, the order gives DOGE veto power over new hires, emphasizing that any hiring must be done in cooperation with that agency.