WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday was set to sign new executive orders from his Florida home while his first joint TV interview with adviser Elon Musk airs in prime time.
Trump's Florida home will also be the setting for an awards program by a conservative group led by Mike Flynn, who briefly served as national security adviser in the Republican president's first term.
Trump was spending part of Tuesday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The White House had no immediate comment on the executive actions Trump was signing later Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Palm Beach. In the first weeks of Trump's second term, he has used executive orders — signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be managed — to address issues including border security, the environment and transgender rights, among others. The White House said the event will be opened for press coverage, after initially saying it would not be allowed.
Trump and Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, gave their first joint interview to Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel. The interview was taped on Friday at the White House and is set to air as Musk leads Trump's effort to cut federal spending and slash the federal workforce.
Musk has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress and others for the methods he and his team at DOGE are using to cut spending, including foreign aid, and eliminate jobs across the bureaucracy.
The Fox News interview also follows Musk's appearance with Trump in the Oval Office last week, when both defended Musk's approach to federal cost-cutting.
In an excerpt from the interview that Fox News released on Sunday, Musk said he “used to be adored by the left” but “less so these days” because of the work he's doing at Trump's direction.
“They call it Trump derangement syndrome. You don't realize how real this is until you can't reason with people,” Musk said, adding that normal conversations with Democrats about the president are difficult because “it's like they've become completely irrational.”
Trump's Mar-a-Lago club is the setting Tuesday night for an awards program by America's Future, which is led by Flynn to preserve individual rights and promote American values and traditions, according to its website. The event, celebrating American exceptionalism, will honor one member from the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the Air Force and the Space Force.
The event includes a poolside reception, musical performances and dinner in Mar-a-Lago's Grand Ballroom, where other award presentations are expected from a lineup that includes such names as Russell Brand, Ted Nugent and Mike Tyson.
It's unclear whether Trump will participate in the event.
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Darlene Superville, The Associated Press
