Will Elon Musk’s conflicts keep him from serving in Trump’s White House?

[Simone Del Rosario]

Elon Musk dropped more than $100 million to help get Donald Trump back in the White House. 

Usually, big-time surrogates could get rewarded with prominent cabinet positions. 

But Musk stands to lose a lot more if he enters government life. 

Richard Painter: If Elon Musk comes into the cabinet or into any government position, he will have to either recuse from matters that affect his financial holdings, or he will have to sell off those financial holdings. This is Richard painter. I’m a law professor at the University of Minnesota, and I am in St Paul, Minnesota. I was formerly the chief White House Ethics lawyer for President George W Bush.

Simone Del Rosario: Unlike the president and vice president, Painter says cabinet members are subject to a criminal conflict of interest statute.

As Tesla’s CEO and largest shareholder, SpaceX’s CEO, and X’s owner, Musk has a lot of conflicts. 

Donald Trump: I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance  audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms. And Elon, because he’s not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.

Simone Del Rosario: When Trump made this declaration, Musk posted that he looks forward to serving America, no pay, no title, no recognition is needed. 

Can he work for the government for free? Is that a way around?

Richard Painter: No. It doesn’t matter whether you get paid or not. If you are working for the government and you’re pointed by the by the president or by anyone else in the government to government position, you are bound by the criminal conflict of interest statute whether or not you get paid. 

Simone Del Rosario: Wealthy cabinet members in history have had to unwind significant financial holdings in the past. But nothing is as significant as the holdings of the richest person in the world. 

Richard Painter: The only way for him to avoid that would be to be a government contractor, like with the defense companies or contractors, and have a consulting firm that was a contractor for the government. That is a loophole, and we have a lot of financial conflict or conflicts of interest embedded in our government contractors, whether the military contracting companies or others, and perhaps Elon Musk may choose to take advantage of that loophole and simply become a contractor, but if he. He starts to have an office in the in the White House or in an agency, or he’s given a title that implies that he’s an appointee of the President. Well, then he’s inside the government, and he would be bound by that criminal conflict of interest statute, whether it is matters that pertain to social media and his ownership and X or electric vehicles transportation and his ownership interest in Tesla Elon Musk would have to decide whether to recuse from any and all those matters or divest his financial interest. And if he doesn’t want to do that, he’s going to have to stay out of the government.

Simone Del Rosario: Musk has already benefited from his investment in Trump. Tesla’s stock price is up nearly 30% since Trump won the election. 

Notable Tesla investor Ross Gerber told Straight Arrow News over email, “Clearly there is a perception that this benefits Tesla and hence the stock rally, which I’m not sad about as I still own a lot. Unfortunately, the reality is Tesla is a business, not a vote on Elon. That business has many issues, starting with [full self-driving, which] doesn’t work and doesn’t look like it will anytime soon.”

Musk’s place in Trump’s White House will surely be dictated by his financial conflicts. But Musk isn’t wasting any time as an unofficial adviser to the president-elect. The Washington Post reports he joined a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski on Wednesday. The call reportedly began with a discussion about one of Musk’s other ventures, Starlink.