US President Donald Trump has mocked what he said were media depictions of Elon Musk as the real power in the White House, saying attempts to drive a wedge between himself and the tech billionaire have failed.

“They do it all the time,” Trump said in excerpts posted on Saturday from a Fox News interview scheduled to be aired on Tuesday.

Speaking in an emulation of a news anchor’s cadence, Trump continued: “We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight...”

The Republican president is famously prickly about being outshone by anyone in his entourage, and there has been widespread speculation Musk’s high profile could lead to his downfall.

South African-born Musk, while nominally just the head of a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), has taken on extraordinarily broad powers in identifying what he says are areas of waste and then moving quickly to cut jobs and spending.

Those moves by the world’s wealthiest person have drawn jibes in the press, including a Time magazine cover showing Musk sitting behind the president’s iconic Resolute Desk, and a New Yorker cover showing both Trump and Musk, hands on a copy of the Bible, together taking the presidential oath of office.

The New Yorker cover by Barry Blitt published on January 20, 2025.

Trump so far has been publicly supportive of Musk’s work, which the president says is vitally important at a time of soaring budget deficits.

In the Fox interview, Trump said he and Musk had discussed the media mockery.

“Actually, Elon called me,” Trump said. “He said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘Absolutely’.”

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump appear during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on February 11. Photo / Getty Images

Trump added Americans understood what the media was allegedly up to.

“I used to think they were good at it,” Trump said. “They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.”

“The people are smart,” he went on. “They get it.”

Amid all the criticism, Musk has continued to draw an intense media focus, including via an Oval Office appearance in which a casually dressed Musk brought his 4-year-old son and spoke at greater length than the president.

Democrats have seized on the at-times awkward dynamic, and opinion polls show negative views of the Tesla and SpaceX boss clearly outpacing positive ones.

But Trump, in the meantime, is enjoying some of his highest approval ratings ever.

– Agence France-Presse