Trump White House checking Elon Musk’s ‘powers’

Since Trump has been sworn in, Elon Musk has been on a rampage to expose excessive government spending.

Apparently, some of Musk’s statements have struck a nerve, just as I had predicted in terms of Trump getting upset with him.

Reports are now breaking that Musk has been given a friendly reminder that he does not have blanket powers, and he still reports to Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

Dial It Back

My biggest concern about Trump bringing Musk into the fold is that we have two power brokers who now have to get along.

First, they are both narcissists, so they crave attention, but until now, neither of them has had to share the limelight in their respective circles.

And as far as Musk is concerned, he probably has never had a boss to answer to, and now he has two of them… Susie Wiles and Donald Trump.

I stated from day one that there would likely be a clash at some point when Musk got tired of being told what to do or being forced to play second fiddle.

To that point, Trump has already had to rein in Musk, with one aide stating, “I’m not sure it was his preferred direction, and it did not seem like he was expecting it.

“But it has been reiterated to him in ways that, yes, he reports to the chief of staff.”

Reports have stated that Wiles and Musk are getting along well, but that is not the relationship that I would be worried about.

I don’t want to read too much into a recent comment by Trump, but it definitely got my attention.

Trump was being asked about Musk, DOGE, and the recommended cuts, and Trump responded, “He has access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good, if we agree with him. And it’s only if we agree with him.

“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval, and we will give him the approval where appropriate. Where it’s not appropriate, we won’t.”

That, to me, was a pretty public rebuke by Trump to Musk. To Musk’s credit, whenever the President-Musk narrative had gotten out of hand, he has made a public statement to try to kill the narrative, so that will not be the problem.

The problem will be when Trump gets tired of hearing it and he winds up going off on Musk to make it clear that he is the boss, not Musk. When that happens, I suspect Musk will walk away.