President Trump has revealed that Elon Musk fears the media could drive a wedge between the two.
The president made the remark in an as yet to air interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, alongside the Tesla CEO and DOGE Chief Musk.
In a preview shared by the channel, Hannity informs the president: ‘The media and the commentating group, I believe you’ve shown that they no longer hold any influence.’
Hannity namechecks The New York Times, The Washington Post and cable news as ‘throwing everything’ at the president.
Referring to the relationship between the two, he continued: ‘Now they want a divorce, they want you two to start hating each other.’
Trump responded: ‘I see it all the time, actually Elon called me and said “you know they’re trying to drive us apart”. I said absolutely.
‘It’s clear, they perform poorly. I previously thought they were competent at it, but they are actually incompetent. If they were competent, I wouldn’t have been elected as president.’
Trump then said that the people ‘get it’ and are able to see ‘what is happening’ to which Musk agreed. The full interview is to air on Tuesday.
The network confirmed the historic sit down will be held in the White House, and will pertain to Musk’s newly certified government agency DOGE.
This occurred shortly after Hannity obtained the initial one-on-one interview with the president, while his administration persists in investigating supposed media prejudice by other channels.
Legacy news stations CBS, ABC and NBC have been honed in on as a result, leaving Fox to reap all the rewards.
The show will air on Hannity at 9pm, staffers at Fox further confirmed in a press release.
The statement talked up Hannity as ‘the longest-running primetime cable news host in history,’ after a historically poor month from networks like MSNBC and CNN.
‘Hannity is known for his provocative style and connection with his audience over the course of his more than 28 years at [Fox News],’ the statement read.
‘Garnering the highest viewership among cable news in his timeslot, Hannity has averaged 3.6 million viewers year-to-date.’
News of the interview comes after a Reuters piece that turned its focus to the supposed friction between Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and Musk’s DOGE.
Wiles and her team have reportedly felt out of the loop as Musk’s DOGE moves aggressively to streamline the federal government, cutting bureaucracy and reducing the workforce.
Tensions have seemingly emerged over their working style, as Wiles’ called for more coordination and communication from Musk’s team.
‘We need to message all this. We need to be looped in,’ sources told Reuters.
However, Musk, who has become an increasingly central figure in Trump’s circle, denied these claims and stated that his team works in full transparency.
‘The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get,’ said Musk. ‘All of our actions are maximally transparent.’
Sources close to the White House have also called out these claims as ‘complete bull****,’ insisting that any friction has been blown out of proportion.
‘This is a unified team,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
‘Elon Musk is serving at the pleasure of the president, just like everybody else on this team. He takes directives directly from the president of the United States.’
In a letter to Reuters on Friday after the story was published, Leavitt added: ‘This story is complete bulls*** from unknown sources who have no idea what they are talking about.’
News surrounding the alleged tension comes as Musk has attended several high-profile meetings with his children alongside him.
Musk and his son X, full name X Æ A-Xii, pronounced ex-ash-ay-twelve, appeared at the White House alongside President Trump on Tuesday.
X later that week joined his father and two of his 10 siblings for a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.