The Trump administration is making an attempt to cover plans at hand off $400 million in taxpayer funds to Tesla, the electrical automotive firm owned by the world’s richest man—Trump supporter Elon Musk.
On Wednesday, a doc revealed by the State Division laid out plans for the acquisition of “armored electric vehicles” from Tesla throughout fiscal 12 months 2025. However after reporting on the doc emerged, it was edited at 9:12 PM and references to Tesla had been eliminated with out clarification.
The payout to Tesla, the place Musk presently serves as CEO, would come simply months after he spent thousands and thousands to assist elect Trump within the 2024 election. Following the election, Trump named Musk to move his Division of Authorities Effectivity, which has been harassing federal employees and rooting round in delicate authorities techniques for weeks.
DOGE has been used to purge federal employees and droop key businesses just like the United States Company for Worldwide Improvement regardless of missing congressional authority to take action. In a name to the World Authorities Summit in Dubai on Thursday, Musk threatened that he would “delete entire agencies.”
The general public doesn’t like what they see from Musk and DOGE. A latest ballot from Economist/YouGov discovered that 52% of respondents view Musk very unfavorably or considerably unfavorably, and 63% suppose he has loads of affect over Trump.
Regardless of the very clear potential for large corruption, the White Home has claimed that Musk will voluntarily excuse himself from any attainable conflicts of curiosity that come up. However Musk has spent years already intertwined with the federal authorities due to the billions in federal contracts tied up in his different firm, SpaceX.
On the identical time, the Trump administration has scaled again and stalled ongoing federal investigations of Musk’s corporations that started underneath the Biden administration.
Whereas the State Division order didn’t specify what a part of Tesla’s product line can be bought, the armored description seems to level to Tesla’s extensively derided Cybertruck. The brainchild of Musk, the unpleasant Cybertruck has been plagued with limitless flaws and a number of product recollects.
Musk claims that he and Trump are working to create a extra environment friendly and clear federal authorities. As a substitute the 2 have lied and smeared for weeks. But Musk stands to make some huge cash due to the politician he bankrolled.
That might be traditional corruption.
