Donald Trump said he would be the next president of the United States on Monday, calling rumors that he had given the office to entrepreneur Elon Musk a “hoax.”
Citing constitutional requirements that a President must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, US President-elect Donald Trump has rejected the notion that Elon Musk will ever hold the office. Musk was born in South Africa and is the billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla. “He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a Republican conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump’s remarks coincide amid growing complaints in the US over Musk’s growing political clout following the Republican presidential candidate’s election to a second term in office. The world’s richest man was instrumental in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passing legislation on Friday to prevent a government shutdown at midnight.
As Trump’s “efficiency czar,” Musk’s influence has come under fire from Democrats, who question how an unelected citizen can have such a large amount of power.
Alongside Trump, Musk eventually contributed to the pressure on Republicans to back out of a funding measure that they had laboriously negotiated with Democrats, bringing the US to the verge of financial stalemate and the possibility of a government shutdown in the days leading up to Christmas. During Trump’s presidential campaign, Musk donated $238.5 million, making him the single largest donor in US election history.
In the end, Congress came to a consensus throughout the course of Friday and Saturday, preventing significant disruptions to government operations.
