OAN Staff James Meyers
2:28 PM – Thursday, December 12, 2024
47th President-elect Donald Trump assured the public that Elon Musk will “put America first” before his own companies while he leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Vivek Ramaswamy in the Trump administration.
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Trump made the remarks during Time Magazine’s 2024 “Person of the Year” cover story interview, emphasizing that Musk “puts the country long before his companies.”
“He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it,” Trump said of Musk, who with Vivek Ramaswamy is running his non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“I think he’s one of the very few people that would have the credibility to do it, but he puts the country before, and I’ve seen it, before he puts his company,” Trump said.
Trump also dismissed concerns regarding worries that Musk’s involvement in his administration could cause certain conflicts of interest. Musk’s acquired billions come from his companies SpaceX and Tesla, which means Trump’s decisions on certain government actions could affect both the Tesla founder’s companies and competitors.
SpaceX and Tesla have accumulated over $15 billion in government contracts over the past 10 years, according to the New York Times. Just last year, Musk’s companies were promised $3 billion, earning almost 100 contracts with 17 federal agencies.
Tesla has contracts with government agencies, such as the Department of Energy, State, and Transportation.
NASA receives insight from SpaceX on matters related to the Falcon 9 rocket, and the agency includes SpaceX in its ongoing anomaly investigations. Additionally, the Defense Department relies on SpaceX to send its satellites into orbit.
Musk has mentioned potential cuts to NASA, which could affect SpaceX, but Trump told Time in his interview that the United States is “bloated with rules, regulations and with, frankly, people that are unnecessary.”
“We’re looking to get people into private sector jobs where they can do better and be more productive,” he said. “We’re going to see what happens. We have some interesting months coming up, at the beginning. We’re going to see what happens. But this country is bloated.”
“But there are many things you can do without Congress,” he said. “When it comes to cutting, harder to get, but to cut, you can do a lot of things without Congress.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s wealth has continued to skyrocket after becoming a close ally of Trump.
Shares in Tesla have climbed by 69% since Election Day, while the valuation of SpaceX went up by 70%. The valuation of X has also gone up.
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