Why is Elon Musk in the White House and is he mad? Tesla CEO attends first cabinet meeting 'giggling about his tech support T-shirt like a 13-year-old'

The group took questions from reporters. Elon Musk who wore a "tech support" T-shirt and Trump covered a wide range of topics, ranging from the Department of Government Efficiency’s (Doge) efforts to cut government spending to immigration, the economy and the war in Ukraine.

Musk, however, has been criticised and slammed for his behaviour during the cabinet meeting. One user wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Elon Musk rolls up to the cabinet meeting he's attending dressed like a bum, giggling about his "tech support" t-shirt like a 13 year-old boy. What an embarrassment.”

Musk said he was merely 'tech support' despite his agency heading up mass firings. He said: “Mr. President, well, I actually just call myself the humble tech support here. We are actually tech support. It’s ironic but it’s true”. He then flashed his signature T-shirt while sporting his 'dark MAGA' hat inside the meting.

Musk provided fresh details on his communications with Trump before he fired off his 'what you did last week' email to 4 million federal workers – and acknowledged occasional errors. He described it as more of a bed check to ensure federal workers were alive and actually existed – although Trump issued his own firing threat by saying anyone who didn't respond was 'on the bubble.'

He said: “We will make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make mistakes, we'll fix it very quickly. So for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally cancelled, very briefly, was Ebola prevention. I think we all want Ebola prevention, so we restore the Ebola prevention immediately”.

On X users ridiculed Musk saying he “expected a laugh” after saying “we accidentally cancelled Ebola” but he “didn’t get one” and even “Trump couldn’t look at him”. Another user wrote: “Elon is wearing out his welcome quickly. The dumbass can't even read the room.”

Asked about an email asking federal government workers to detail a list of things they've done in their job recently, Musk said anyone who doesn't respond "is presumed dead" or is "a fraudster". Despite his powerful role, Musk is technically a 'special government employee' working for the government on a temporary basis. When a reporter asked if any cabinet secretaries wanted to raise criticism of Musk's directives, Trump interjected: “If you are we’ll throw ‘em out of here.”