The President doth protest too much.
Pecking Order
Donald Trump is starting to sound markedly testy about people insinuating that his “First Buddy” Elon Musk is the real one running the show.
During an appearance on Sunday at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, the Republican president-elect mocked the idea that he’s “ceded the presidency” to Musk as just the latest “hoax” that his opponents are trying to smear him with.
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told his audience of supporters.
Moments later, he doubled down with a smug-sounding jab at Musk about his birthplace — with perhaps a little too much zest.
“No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump repeated. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country,” he added, giggling.
Twitter Tantrum
It’s true that Musk, having been born in South Africa, is disqualified from literally heading up the Oval Office. But Trump’s comments do little to convince critics that the world’s richest man, who donated over $200 million to get Trump elected, isn’t the one calling the shots from behind the scenes. They only demonstrate that the “President Musk” jokes are living in his head.
And the critics have a point. Musk made one of his most blatant displays of power last Wednesday when he essentially commanded Republicans to kill a bipartisan spending bill that would prevent a government shutdown.
While Trump was probably still in bed, Musk was up at 4:00 am lambasting the funding resolution on his website X-formerly-Twitter, posting over one hundred times within the day. Any Republican that didn’t oppose the bill, Musk threatened to unseat with his own candidate.
It worked. Even before Trump belatedly issued his decree in the afternoon to finish the bill off, its support had already crumbled. And there was Musk triumphantly straddling the ruins, declaring the battle won.
Opti-Musk Prime
Trump has since claimed that he told Musk to publicly put pressure on the bill. Even if that’s true, his fellow Republicans are crediting Musk’s leadership for the victory, Axios reports.
“It’s kind of interesting, we have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker,” observed Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) in an interview Sunday on CBS News, per Axios. “It feels like Elon Musk is our prime minister.”
Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) even floated the idea of making Musk Speaker of the House.
“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk,” Paul posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
More on Trump: Elon Musk Bullies Congress Into Cutting Funding for Child Cancer Research