Trump heaps praise on Musk as tech baron leaves US government

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After a very high profile period in proximity to Donald Trump Elon Musk today steps back from working for the government on DOGE - the department of government efficiency - and goes back to running his businesses. So what has he achieved? Also on the programme: Will the Romanian golden helmet that was stolen from a Dutch museum ever be found? How come Western countries are paying more to Russia for oil and gas than they are paying to Ukraine for its defence? And we look back at the life of the man who invented the abortion pill.

(Photo: Elon Musk stands in the Oval Office to attend a press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. CREDIT: REUTERS/Nathan Howard)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming live from London with Owen Bennett Jones.
0:10.9	After a very high-profile period in proximity to Donald Trump, Elon Musk today step back from working for the government on Doge,
0:20.3	the Department of Government Efficiency. He goes
0:23.2	back to running his businesses now. So what has he achieved? He said he would cut trillions. That has not
0:29.6	happened. But there have been real cuts and thousands of jobs have gone. And Trump and Musk have remained
0:36.2	close, despite some openly expressed policy
0:39.3	differences. This is some of what's been said, but by the two men, since Trump came to power.
0:45.8	Goge. Perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight.
0:56.1	The people voted for major government reform.
1:00.7	There should be no doubt about that.
1:02.3	That was on the campaign.
1:04.4	The president spoke about that at every rally.
1:06.8	The people voted for major government reform.
1:09.5	And that's what people are going to get.
1:10.7	They're going to get what they voted for.
1:12.6	This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.
1:16.6	Turn saw.
1:18.6	We are moving fast, so we will make mistakes, but we'll also fix the mistakes very quickly.
1:23.6	So...
1:24.6	You think that's a worthy cause, USAID?
1:26.6	I think that there's some worthy things, but overall, if you say what is the bank of the buck,
1:32.3	I would say it was not very good.
	...

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