• Elon Musk appeared with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
• Musk defended the cuts being made by DOGE as "common sense."
• Musk said Americans are "going to get what they voted for."

Elon Musk appeared alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday to defend the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk, who leads DOGE, said the cuts being made by the agency were not "draconian" and that they represented "common sense" changes that would make government more efficient.

Trump and Musk addressed reporters shortly after the president signed an executive order to initiate "large-scale reductions" in the federal workforce and expand DOGE's power to oversee the hiring of career officials by federal agencies.

The executive order said agencies would be required to hire "no more than one employee for every four employees that depart," adding that the cuts and hiring ratio would not apply to roles related to "public safety, immigration enforcement, or law enforcement."

The order also said hiring decisions by agency heads should be made in partnership with a "DOGE Team Lead." It said no vacancies should be filled if the DOGE member decides it's unnecessary unless an agency head determines the position should be filled.

Musk, who was joined by his son X, reiterated his stance that Americans voted for the changes DOGE is making. "They're going to get what they voted for," he said.

"And if you have the rule of the bureaucrat, if the bureaucracy is actually in charge then what meaning does democracy actually have," Musk said. "If the people cannot vote and have their will decided by their elected representatives in the form of the president, and the Senate, and the House then we do not live in a democracy."

Trump questioned why federal judges would seek to block some of DOGE's efforts.

"Now, a judge who is an activist judge wants to try to stop us from doing this," Trump said. "Why would they try to do this? I campaigned on this."

Musk previously wrote on X that a federal judge should be impeached after a ruling temporarily blocked DOGE staff from accessing sensitive Treasury Department files. Vice President JD Vance and leading congressional Republicans have said judges are exceeding their authority by reining in DOGE workers, suggesting that Trump might just simply ignore their rulings.

Reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday asked Musk repeatedly about DOGE's transparency and how the world's richest man is navigating potential conflicts of interest for his array of companies, which have collectively received billions in federal contracts over the years.

Musk said that DOGE is "as transparent as possible." He pointed to the updates the outfit posts on its official X account. He also said that DOGE posts about its activities on its official government site, though, as of Tuesday afternoon, DOGE.gov contains no new information.

"All of our actions are maximally transparent," Musk said.

A DOGE spokesperson recently declared that DOGE falls under the Presidential Records Act, meaning that Musk and his staff's work could remain private for years to come.