By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-12-22 21:26:34 | Updated at 2024-12-23 02:22:24
5 hours ago
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will be president of the United States - not Elon Musk.
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told a conservative audience in Phoenix, Arizona, addressing growing complaints about the outsized role the Tesla boss has already had in his incoming administration.
“You know, they’re on a new kick,” he said. “All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no, that’s not happening.”
That Trump would be compelled to address Musk’s power is testimony to the unusual influence that the world’s richest man has displayed in a second Trump presidency that will not begin for another month.
Trump has tapped Musk to head a cost-cutting and deregulation effort he calls the Department of Government Efficiency. It is not an official department, but rather a small group of people working from the Washington offices of Musk’s SpaceX and organised around an account on Musk’s social media platform, X.
The appointment has already brought complaints of conflicts of interest, as Musk’s many businesses - including car-maker Tesla, tunnel-drilling Boring Co, rocket-launcher SpaceX and its sister satellite company Starlink - are regulated by the federal government and receive federal contracts.
