Roving Periscope: ‘I, not Elon Musk, will be the POTUS,’ asserts Donald Trump!
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Who have the Americans elected as their 47th President?
Donald Trump, of course, who was elected for a second non-consecutive term of four years (2025-28) in November and is now preparing to return to the White House on January 20, 2025.
His assertion that he will start inauguration next month came amid growing ‘complaints’ in the US about his close associate and the world’s wealthiest person Elon Musk’s increased influence in the country’s politics and administration.
During Trump’s presidential campaign, Musk donated USD 238.5 million, making him the single largest donor in US election history.
Trump on Monday called rumors that he had ceded the presidency to Musk a “hoax”, and asserted that he will be the new president of the United States.
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told a conservative youth group Turning Point USA.
Hinting at the Democrats’ hyperactive ecosystem, which is viewed as the spreader of this rumor to settle post-election scores with the winner, he said “You know, they’re on a new kick.” “All the different hoaxes. The new one is that President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no, that’s not happening,” the media reports quoted Trump as saying.
Since Trump’s November win, the US has been agog with ‘complaints’ about Musk’s increased influence in the country’s politics. Musk also played a critical role as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation on Friday to avert a midnight government shutdown.
Trump also admired Musk: “Isn’t it nice to have smart people we can rely on? Don’t we want that? But no, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said.
“And I’m safe. Do you know why? He can’t be (the President). He wasn’t born in this country. Ha ha ha,” Trump told his audience in Phoenix, hinting at Musk’s South African origins.
The President-elect adopted Musk’s idea of cost-cutting and deregulation when he announced the formation of a temporary agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to be led jointly by Elon Musk and Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who withdrew as a Republican candidate in Trump’s favor.
Rather than an official department, the DOGE has become a small group of people working from Musk’s SpaceX office in Washington and organized around an account on Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter).
Musk’s influence has raised alarm bells in policy-making circles in the US, and its ‘Deep State’ as most of his companies are regulated by the federal government and receive contracts.
