WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday meant to expand access to and reduce costs of in vitro fertilization and issued a presidential memorandum calling for “radical transparency requirements” from the government, which he suggested could reduce wasteful spending.

On the campaign trail, Trump called for universal coverage of IVF treatment after his Supreme Court nominees helped to overturn Roe vs. Wade, leading to a wave of restrictions in Republican-led states, including some that have threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception.

Trump, who was at his Florida residence and club Mar-a-Lago, also signed another executive order as well as a presidential memorandum. The second order outlined the oversight functions of the Office of Management and Budget, and the memo requires the government to detail any “waste, fraud and abuse” that is found by billionaire Elon Musk’s advisory team, which he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk’s team, which is charged with cutting government spending, has often fallen short of the administration’s promises of transparency. The chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX has taken questions from journalists only once since becoming Trump’s most powerful advisor, and he’s claimed it’s illegal to name people who are working for him. Sometimes his team’s staff members have demanded access to sensitive government databases, including Americans’ IRS records, with little explanation.

Trump took more than 30 minutes of questions Tuesday on a range of topics and bashed the Biden administration throughout, highlighting issues such as its handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, Venezuela policy and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump said he thought he had a “good chance” of negotiating an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine, but he bristled at suggestions that the U.S. and Russia had begun the talks without Ukraine playing a role. He even seemed to suggest that Ukraine was to blame for a war that began when Russia invaded its smaller neighbor.

“Today I heard, ‘Well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years,” Trump said of Ukraine’s leaders. “You should have never started it.”

In anticipation of questions about his administration’s sharp reductions of federal agencies, which he says is an effort to rein in spending, the president said he wrote down examples of government programs he objected to, listing them at length. They included funding to promote voter turnout in India and social cohesion initiatives in Mali — all of which Trump suggested collectively amounted to fraud.

Asked about the White House’s arguing in a court filing that Musk wasn’t the head of Trump’s government efficiency efforts, the president said: “You could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant, you could call him whatever you want. But he’s a patriot.”

Trump said he thinks “women and families, husbands, are very appreciative” of his executive order on IVF, which offers a possible solution when a woman has trouble getting pregnant. The procedure involves retrieving her eggs and combining them in a lab dish with a man’s sperm to create a fertilized embryo, which is then transferred into the woman’s uterus in an attempt to create a pregnancy. IVF is done in cycles, and more than one may be required.

Barbara Collura, president and chief executive of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Assn., said that what the White House put out “looks extremely promising.”

“The biggest barriers for people to building their families are the out-of-pocket costs, the lack of insurance coverage for this care,” she said.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) criticized Trump, saying his previous actions are the only reason IVF is threatened at all. “Donald Trump’s executive order does nothing to expand access to IVF,” she said. “In fact, he’s the reason IVF is at risk in the first place.”

Duckworth said that if Trump is going to follow through on his campaign promise to provide free IVF, he can start by supporting her legislation that would require insurance plans to cover IVF.

Trump, who spent the morning at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., spoke to reporters hours before his first joint TV interview with Musk aired in prime time on Fox News Channel. The president acknowledged during that interview that “inflation is back,” but noted that he’d only been in office a few weeks and insisted “I had nothing to do” with prices that remain stubbornly high.

Trump mentioned during that same interview that Musk is “probably not that happy” with things like tax breaks for electric vehicles probably not being included in tax legislation now being discussed in Congress, but he said Musk didn’t seek special treatment for Tesla.

“I haven’t asked the president for anything, ever,” Musk said. Asked about potential conflicts of interest between Musk’s governmental efforts and his businesses and how they will be handled, Trump said, “He won’t be involved,” and Musk said he’d “recuse” himself.

Musk has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress and others for the methods he and his advisory team are using in their stated goal to cut spending, including slashing foreign aid and eliminating federal jobs.

The joint interview follows Musk’s appearance with Trump in the Oval Office last week, when both defended Musk’s approach.

Also Tuesday night, an awards program was held at Mar-a-Lago by America’s Future, a conservative group led by Mike Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who briefly served as national security advisor in Trump’s first term. The program aims to preserve individual rights and promote American values and traditions, according to its website. The event honored one member each from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Space Force.

The event included a poolside reception, musical performances and dinner in Mar-a-Lago’s Grand Ballroom. The lineup included such names as Russell Brand, Ted Nugent and Mike Tyson.

Trump made an appearance at the event, according to video posted on social media Tuesday night, addressing the crowd on the patio as he stood near Tyson, Flynn and Nugent and declaring, “This is very, very friendly territory.”

Trump praised the men, including Flynn, who was one of the leading proponents of Trump’s efforts to remain in power despite his loss in the 2020 election. Like Trump, Flynn is a convicted felon; Trump, during his first term, pardoned him.

The president called Flynn “the real deal” and indicated he wanted to bring Flynn into his administration, saying he offered him “about 10 jobs.”

“Anytime you want to come in, you know that, Mike, OK?” Trump said.

Flynn resigned from the first Trump administration less than a month after Trump’s inauguration. He was charged in 2017 with lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russians on Trump’s behalf. He twice pleaded guilty to felony charges before Trump pardoned him in the final weeks of his presidency.

Superville and Price write for the Associated Press and reported from West Palm Beach and New York, respectively. AP writers Will Weissert and Chris Megerian in Washington and Laura Ungar in Louisville, Ky., contributed to this report.