Musk hosts Trump for SpaceX launch, as misconduct claims swirl over picks

Washington: The bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has reached new heights, with the president-elect travelling to Texas to watch the world’s richest man conduct a fresh test launch of his SpaceX mega-rocket.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks with Elon Musk as Senator Kevin Cramer listens, before viewing the launch of a SpaceX test flight in Brownsville, Texas.Credit: AP

In another sign of the bond between the incoming president and the tech entrepreneur who spent tens of millions of dollars to help re-elect him, Trump joined Musk at the Starbase rocket launch facility in Brownsville for the sixth test of the 120-metre Starship that will one day ferry NASA astronauts to the moon.

The appearance came as Trump nominated three more loyalists to his cabinet. The first was celebrity doctor Oz Mehmet – a failed Senate candidate who regularly promoted an unproven COVID-19 treatment during the pandemic – to lead the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The second was Wall Street executive Howard Lutnick, who has been tapped to be Trump’s secretary of commerce, overseeing an agency that has vast influence over US trade and technology.

The third was former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, who was picked as education secretary, although Trump has proposed abolishing the Education Department.

The appointments came days after Trump nominated Musk to co-lead a new government efficiency commission, giving him considerable sway in the new administration.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket disappears in the clouds after launching from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: AP

The pair have rarely been seen apart since Trump defeated Kamala Harris this month, with Musk regularly camping out at Mar-a-Lago amid speculation over when Trump would grow tired of him hanging around.

In his latest attempt to influence the shape of Trump’s cabinet, Musk on Tuesday threw his weight behind MAGA loyalist Matt Gaetz becoming America’s next attorney-general, dismissing the former congressman’s alleged sexual misconduct and touting him as a “Hammer of Justice” to weed out corruption.

His public backing came hours after a lawyer for two women who Gaetz allegedly paid for sex appeared on US cable networks outlining the allegations against him.

The two women were interviewed by the House Ethics Committee that has been investigating Gaetz for almost a year. According to their lawyer, Joel Leppard, they told the committee that Gaetz had repeatedly paid them for sex and asked them about sourcing drugs for upcoming parties.

Dr Mehmet Oz.Credit: AP

One client also testified that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend against a game table at a July 2017 party when he was a 35-year-old congressman.

Gaetz was not charged and has denied any wrongdoing, but resigned from Congress almost immediately after Trump nominated him, effectively thwarting the committee’s ability to release the report of their findings.

Despite the controversy, Musk has publicly backed Gaetz on his social media platform, X, telling his 205 million followers: “Matt Gaetz has 3 critical assets that are needed for the AG role: a big brain, a spine of steel and an axe to grind. He is the Judge Dredd America needs to clean up a corrupt system and put powerful bad actors in prison.”

“Gaetz will be our Hammer of Justice,” said Musk. “As for these accusations against him, I consider them worth less than nothing. Under our laws, a man is considered innocent until proven guilty.”

Matt Gaetz speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington earlier this year.Credit: AP

The far-right congressman also led the 2023 coup to oust then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which paralysed Congress for weeks.

But in a political landscape where democratic norms are constantly shattered, Trump himself is set to enter the White House as the first president found liable for sexual abuse (against writer E. Jean Carroll) and the first to do so as a convicted felon (found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels).

In the case against Carroll, the 78-year-old Republican was ordered to pay almost $US89 million ($136.3 million) after a civil jury found he had assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and later defamed her when she went public with the allegations – something he denies.

In the hush money case, Trump was meant to be sentenced next week, but in a letter to Judge Juan Merchan on Wednesday AEDT, prosecutors from District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office raised the prospect of freezing the sentence for four years while Trump is president.

E. Jean Carroll leaves the New York Federal Court after Trump appeared in September.Credit: AP

“The people deeply respect the office of the president, are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, and acknowledge that defendant’s inauguration will raise unprecedented legal questions,” prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office wrote.

“We also deeply respect the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system.”

Gaetz is also not the only cabinet nominee whose sexual history has come under scrutiny. Fox & Friends co-host Peter Hegseth, who Trump has tapped to lead the Pentagon as the new defence secretary, has also admitted paying a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2017.

Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in 2016.Credit: AP

And Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the vaccine sceptic who Trump wants as his secretary for health, was also accused of groping a former 23-year-old babysitter to his children.

In text messages shared by the woman with US media earlier this year, he told her: “I have no memory of this incident, but I apologise sincerely for anything I ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything I did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings. I never intended you any harm. If I hurt you, it was inadvertent.”

All three men are also viewed as unqualified for the positions they have been asked to fill as they have no federal government experience. They do, however, share the same qualities Trump values: unwavering loyalty and a desire to shake up Washington’s bureaucracy.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.

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