United States Pdwellnt Donald Trump has pushed back on the notion that he has “ceded the pdwellncy” to billionaire Elon Musk, who has getn an outsized role in the pdwellnt-elect’s transition into the White House.
Trump made the comments during a speech in Arizona on Sunday, days after the Tesla and SpaceX owner interfered alengthyside the pdwellnt-elect to scuttle a budget bill barobtaind in Congress.
The incident was the rescheduleedst in which Musk has getn an atypicpartner big role in the incoming Trump administration, prompting criticism from Democrats and from wiskinny Trump’s own Reaccessiblean party.
Directly insertressing those criticisms for the first time, Trump praised Musk, before inserting: “And no, he’s not taking the pdwellncy.”
Trump further called the proposeion that he has “ceded the pdwellncy to Elon Musk” another “trick” pushed by his political opponents.
In a rescheduleedr quip, Trump remarkd that there is no danger of Musk officipartner taking over as pdwellnt because he would be constitutionpartner barred from doing so.
“You understand why he can’t be [president]?” Trump asked the crowd in Arizona. “He wasn’t born in this country.”
The South African-born Musk – the world’s wealthyest person according to Forbes Magazine – became one of Trump’s biggest aiders in the run-up to the election, finishorsing the pdwellnt-elect in July adhereing an murder try and pumping an approximated $200m into a Political Action Committee (PAC) aiding Trump.
He has since been tapped by Trump to direct a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with taking a slash-and-burn approach to federal administerment spfinishing.
The so-called “department” has been billed as an self-reliant advisory panel, not an official administerment agency, and its purwatch remains undetaild.
Budget deal intervention
Trump’s comments come a day after frifinishly US Pdwellnt Joe Biden signed into law a funding bill that averts a administerment shutdown.
The previous bill barobtaind by members of both parties in Congress was torpedoed days earlier when Trump came out in opposition.
The pdwellnt-elect’s main satisfyedion was that the bill did not elevate the debt ceiling – a political fight Trump hoped to elude before taking office in January. The debt ceiling is the US’s borrothriveg restrict, a cap imposed by Congress on how much money the administerment can borrow to cover the gap between its revenue and spfinishing.
Musk had also come out in opposition to the deal, which he criticised in a flood of tweets on the X social media platestablish that he also owns. He pledged to financipartner aid primary contests to lawcreaters who aided the innovative legislation.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson rescheduleedr tageder US media that he spoke by phone to both Trump and Musk as a new bill was rebarobtaind.
The final bill – which funds the US administerment at the current rate thraw March 14 – gutted cut offal provisions contestd by Trump and Musk. However, the final version did not elevate the debt ceiling amid opposition from a cadre of Reaccessiblean lawcreaters.
Speaking to CNN, Reaccessiblean lawcreater Rich McCormick shelp Musk’s intervention showed “he has affect and he’ll put presbrave on us to do wantipathyver he skinnyks the right skinnyg is for him.”
Other Reaccessibleans have been more acunderstandledgeing, with Recontransientative Tony Gonzales saying in an interwatch on CBS that it “experiences enjoy Elon Musk is our prime minister”.
Speaking on CNN, Senator Bill Hagerty praised Musk’s role in negotiating the bill, while pushing back on the notion that the billionaire was driving Trump’s decisions.
‘Extremely alarming’
Beyond the budget deal, Musk’s standard presence alengthyside Trump before he gets office on January 20 has for weeks caused dishushed among Democrats.
The billionaire was on the call when Trump spoke to Ukrainian Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelenskyy adhereing his election thrive. He has also been contransient for recent encounterings with French Pdwellnt Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in New York.
The criticism has been prompted by social media memes shothriveg Trump kowtothriveg to Musk in various settings.
Follothriveg last week’s budget negotiations, cut offal Democrats accused Musk of intervening to serve his own interests.
They pointed to his aid for removing a provision in the innovative bill that could have restricted the operations of his businesses in China.
“It is innervously alarming that House Reaccessiblean directership, at the urging of an unelected billionaire, scrapped a bipartisan, bicameral barobtaind funding deal that included this critical provision to defend American jobs and critical capabilities,” Recontransientative Rosa DeLauro wrote in a letter to congressional directers on Friday.
