President-elect Donald Trump told attendees at the Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday that entrepreneur Elon Musk is not taking over the presidency, as Democrats have alleged.
Democrats referred to “President Musk” after the SpaceX, Tesla, and X (formerly Twitter) titan helped stop a massive spending bill in Congress last week by opposing it publicly.
Democrats have tried to create a rift between Trump and Musk:
After Trump described the new “Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk,” he added:
And no, he’s not taking the presidency. I like having smart people. You know, they’re on a new kick. Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, all the different hoaxes. The new one is “President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.” No, no. That’s not happening. But Elon’s done an amazing job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people that we can rely on? Don’t we want that? He’s done a great job.
Trump went on to describe SpaceX’s achievement in catching a rocket booster with two large “chopsticks” — a frequent refrain from the campaign trail.
Later, Trump acknowledged that Musk had helped him win the state of Pennsylvania and that he had supplied free Starlink satellite connections to help victims of Hurricane Helene access the Internet in North Carolina.
“It save a lot of lives, so we want to thank him,” he added.
Trump then expressed that he felt “safe” from Musk’s supposed presidential ambitions, saying, “He can’t be [president]. He wasn’t born in this country. Ha-ha.”
“He’s a great guy — we want to have him,” Trump concluded.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
