Trump rejects taunt that Elon Musk is the driving force behind America’s newly elected President Donald Trump News

United States President Donald Trump has rejected the notion that he has “handed over the presidency” to billionaire Elon Musk, who has played a big role in the president-elect’s transition to the White House.

Trump made the comments during a speech in Arizona on Sunday, days after the Tesla and SpaceX boss intervened with the president-elect to stall negotiations on a budget bill in Congress.

The incident was the latest in which Musk has taken an unusually large role in the incoming Trump administration, drawing criticism from Democrats and Trump from within his own Republican Party.

Addressing those criticisms directly for the first time, Trump praised Musk, before adding: “And no, he’s not taking the presidency.”

Trump further described the suggestion that he has “handed over the presidency to Elon Musk” as another “hoax” peddled by his political opponents.

In a later comment, Trump said there was no risk of Musk officially assuming the presidency because he would be constitutionally barred from doing so.

“You know why he can’t become (President)?” Trump asked the crowd in Arizona. “He was not born in this country.”

South African-born Musk – the world’s richest man according to Forbes magazine – became one of Trump’s biggest supporters before the election, endorsing the president-elect after an assassination attempt in July and raising an estimated $200 million. Invested. Political Action Committee (PAC) is supporting Trump.

He has since been selected by Trump to lead the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with taking a slash-and-burn approach to federal government spending.

The so-called “department” is introduced as an independent advisory panel, not an official government agency, and its scope is undefined.

interference in budget deal

Trump’s comments come a day after outgoing US President Joe Biden signed a funding bill averting a government shutdown.

A previous bill negotiated by members of both parties in Congress was torpedoed days earlier when Trump came out in protest.

The president-elect’s main argument was that the bill does not raise the debt ceiling — a political fight that Trump had hoped to avoid before taking office in January. The debt ceiling is the US borrowing limit, a limit imposed by Congress on how much money the government can borrow to cover the difference between its revenues and expenditures.

Musk had also come out in opposition to the deal, which he criticized in a flood of tweets on the X social media platform he owns. He pledged to financially support primary challenges to lawmakers who support the Basic Law.

House Speaker Mike Johnson later told US media that he spoke by phone with both Trump and Musk as the new bill was renegotiated.

The final bill – which funds the US government at the current rate until March 14 – eliminated several provisions opposed by Trump and Musk. However, the debt limit was not increased in the final version amid opposition from a cadre of Republican lawmakers.

Speaking to CNN, Republican Congressman Rich McCormick said Musk’s intervention shows “he has influence and he will pressure us to do what he thinks is right for him.”

Other Republicans are more accepting, with Representative Tony Gonzales saying in an interview on CBS that it feels like Elon Musk is our prime minister.

Speaking on CNN, Senator Bill Hagerty praised Musk’s role in negotiating the bill, while pushing back against the notion that the billionaire was driving Trump’s decisions.

‘Extremely worrying’

Beyond the budget deal, Musk’s regular appearances with Trump before he takes office on Jan. 20 have stoked unease among Democrats for weeks.

The billionaire was on the call when Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following his election victory. He has also been present at recent meetings in New York with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Criticism has been prompted by social media memes depicting Trump bowing to Musk in various settings.

After last week’s budget talks, many Democrats accused Musk of meddling to serve his own interests.

He pointed to their support for removing a provision in the original bill that could have limited their businesses’ operations in China.

“It is deeply troubling that House Republican leadership, at the insistence of an unelected billionaire, gutted a bipartisan, bicameral negotiated funding deal that included this critical provision to protect American jobs and critical capabilities,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. On Friday.