Donald Trump defends himself: Musk “is not taking over the presidency”

US President-elect Donald Trump has responded to allegations that tech billionaire Elon Musk wields too much political influence. “No, he is not taking over the presidency,” said the Republican at the right-wing conservative conference “AmericaFest” in the state of Arizona. “But Elon did a great job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people we can rely on?”

According to Forbes, Musk is the richest man in the world. He also owns Platform X, on which he promotes Trump. He also provided massive financial support to the Republican’s election campaign. He has been close to the 78-year-old since his election victory. Trump has commissioned the businessman to work with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy on a newly created committee called DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”) to develop proposals to cut government spending.

Last week, Musk came under criticism for, among other things, his role in the budget negotiations. The US Congress only averted a government shutdown at the last minute after Trump – probably under the influence of Musk – torpedoed an agreement that had already been negotiated.

Democrats in particular accuse Musk of interfering in political processes without a political mandate and with his own economic interests. Some members of Congress scoffed that Musk was the real Republican leader, ironically referring to him as “President Musk.”

Trump strongly opposed this in Arizona, but did not directly deny the allegations of political influence behind the scenes. Instead, he declared: “No, he will not become president, I can promise you that. (…) And do you know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.” Musk has US citizenship, but comes from South Africa. According to the US Constitution, he is excluded from the office of president.