Elon Musk ‘not taking the presidency’, says Donald Trump

Phoenix, Arizona: Donald Trump has vowed that he will be president of the US – not Elon Musk – addressing growing complaints about the outsized role the Tesla boss has already had in his incoming administration.

“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told a conservative audience at a rally in Phoenix on Sunday (Arizona time).

I’m the boss: Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has become President-elect Donald Trump’s apparent right-hand man.Credit: AP

“All the different hoaxes. The new one is that president Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk. No, no, that’s not happening.”

That Trump would be compelled to address Musk’s power is testimony to the unusual influence that the world’s richest man has displayed in the run-up to a second Trump presidency.

The president-elect has tapped Musk to head a cost-cutting and deregulation effort he calls the Department of Government Efficiency.

The appointment has already brought complaints of conflicts of interest, as Musk’s many businesses – including car maker Tesla, tunnel-drilling Boring Co., rocket-launcher SpaceX and its sister satellite company, Starlink – are regulated by the federal government and receive federal contracts.

Donald Trump speaks at AmericaFest on Sunday.Credit: AP

Trump used his first major rally since winning the White House on November 5 to bask in his return to power, as a large conservative audience cheered along. It was a display of party unity at odds with a just-concluded budget fight on Capitol Hill, in which some GOP legislators openly defied their leader’s demands.

Budget hawks flouted Trump’s request to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, which would have spared some new rounds of the same fight after he takes office on January 20. Republicans hold a narrow control of the House and Senate.

Musk was also an early and vocal opponent of the budget compromise, amplifying criticism of the bill – much of it misleading – on social media platform X.

The final agreement did not address the issue, and there was no shutdown.

Addressing 20,000 supporters at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, Trump pledged that his “dream-team cabinet” would deliver a booming economy, seal US borders and quickly settle wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“I can proudly proclaim that the Golden Age of America is upon us,” Trump said. “There’s a spirit that we have now that we didn’t have just a short while ago.”

He opened the speech by saying: “We want to try to bring everybody together. We’re going to try. We’re going to really give it a shot.” Then he suggested Democrats had “lost their confidence” and were “befuddled” after the election, but would eventually “come over to our side because we want to have them”.

‘Rip-off will stop’

Trump also suggested that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal, which the United States ceded to Panama almost 25 years ago, contending that shippers were being charged ridiculous fees to pass through the vital channel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal,” he said, bemoaning that his country “foolishly gave it away”. “This complete rip-off” of the US “will immediately stop”.

If not, he said, the waterway could “be returned to the United States of America in full and without question”. He did not explain how that would be possible.

The US relinquished control of the canal to Panama in 1999 under a treaty signed by president Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino is a conservative populist, and the country is a strong American ally. The waterway is crucial for Panama’s economy and generates about one-fifth of its annual revenue.

The Panama Canal is one of the world’s busiest trade routes.Credit: AP

Mulino was expected to speak about Trump’s comments later on Sunday (Panamanian time) in Panama City.

The canal was heavily affected by droughts in 2023, which forced it to slash the number of daily slots for crossing ships. Because of the reduction in ships using it each day, canal administrators increased the fees charged to shipping lines to reserve a slot.

With weather returning to normal in the later months of this year, the canal has resumed usual operations, but price increases are still expected next year.

AP, Bloomberg

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