The tech-billionaire owner of X has called him an “incompetent fool” and urged him to resign. On Thursday Musk will use his platform to host Alice Weidel, the head of Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant AfD for a lengthy chat.

For many German politicians it smacks of political interference, with the AfD running second in the polls ahead of federal elections on 23 February.

“You have to stay cool,” says Scholz. “Don’t feed the troll.”

Although some of Europe’s leaders, notably Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, have found favour with Musk, others are finding it hard to ignore him, as he ventures into their domestic politics ahead of a new role of adviser to the incoming US President Donald Trump.

In the space of 24 hours, four European governments have objected to Musk’s posts.

France’s Emmanuel Macron was among the first to expressed incredulity on Monday.

“Ten years ago, who would have believed it, if we had been told that the owner of one of the biggest social networks in the world would support a new, international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?” he said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store weighed in, too, saying he found it “worrying that a man with considerable access to social networks and significant economic resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries”.

Spain’s government spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría, said digital platforms such as X should act with “absolute neutrality and above all without any kind of interference”.

Musk has highlighted crime statistics in Norway and Spain, and blamed a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany on “mass unchecked immigration”.

In the past few days, Musk has written numerous posts attacking the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his administration over grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation.

“Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” said the UK prime minister, without mentioning Musk personally.

Two notable exceptions in Europe are Italy and Hungary.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cultivated close ties with Elon Musk and calls him a “genius” and an “extraordinary innovator”.

And Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who met Musk while visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, shares Musk’s dislike of Hungarian-born liberal philanthropist George Soros.

But it is the tech-billionaire’s intervention in German politics that is most contentious, because of imminent elections.

He has spoken out several times in favour of the AfD in recent weeks, and wrote a highly controversial article for Welt am Sonntag in which he called the AfD the “last spark of hope” for Germany.

Musk justified his intervention at the time because of his company Tesla’s financial investment in Germany. He said portraying the AfD as right-wing, extremist was “clearly false”, because Alice Weidel had a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka.

German security services have labelled the AfD either as right-wing extremist or suspected extremist and the courts have ruled it pursues goals against democracy.

While Olaf Scholz has sought to stay calm, the Greens’ candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck, was more blunt: “Hands off our democracy, Mr Musk.”

Liberal FDP leader Christian Lindner has suggested that Musk’s aim might perhaps be to weaken Germany in the US interest, “by recommending voting for a party that would harm us economically and isolate us politically”.

The former head of the European Commission’s digital agenda, Thierry Breton, took to X last weekend to warn Alice Weidel, the AfD’s candidate for chancellor, that Thursday’s live chat with Musk would give her “a significant and valuable advantage over your competitors”.

The European Commission has said there is nothing in the EU’s Digital Services rules that bans a live stream, or anyone expressing personal views.

However, a spokesman warned that platform owners should not provide “preferential treatment”. Musk’s X is already under investigation and the EU says the live stream will come under that inquiry.

While Musk has been outspoken on German politics, he has also been extending his business interests in Italy.

Giorgia Meloni had just been on a whirlwind trip to have dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago when reports emerged that Italy was in talks with Musk’s SpaceX to sign a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) deal, under which Starlink satellites would provide encrypted internet and telecommunications services for the Italian government.

The deal does not yet appear to have been concluded and Rome has swiftly denied any contracts have been signed.

Musk said on Monday that he was “ready to provide Italy [with] the most secure and advanced connectivity” – without confirming a deal had been reached.

But the suggestion that Starlink could be entrusted with safeguarding the Italian government’s communications was enough to cause alarm among some opposition politicians in Rome.

“Handing over such a delicate service to Musk while he is sponsoring the European far right, spreading fake news and meddling in the internal politics of European countries cannot be an option,” said centrist leader Carlo Calenda.

By BBC News

The post Europe Leaders Criticise Musk Attacks appeared first on KahawaTungu.

In a series of posts over several days, Musk suggested Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison”.

It came as the Home Office defended its decision to reject a request for it to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham. The Conservatives and Reform UK have called for a wider national inquiry.

Asked about Musk’s comments on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Farage said he had used “very tough terms” but that “free speech was back” on X under his ownership.

Farage was also pressed on his wider relationship with Musk, who is said to be considering donating money to his Reform party.

Musk’s latest intervention on UK politics came after Phillips, a safeguarding minister within the Home Office, instructed Oldham Council to launch its own local inquiry into historic child sexual abuse in the town, similar to inquiries set up in Rochdale and Telford. The local authority had called for a government-led inquiry.

The tech tycoon seized on the decision, which was taken in October, and began heavily criticising the British government online.

He suggested Sir Keir had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of public prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from Reform and Conservative MPs calling for a national inquiry.

Musk, who is a key advisor to incoming US President Donald Trump, called the prime minister “two-tier Keir” and accused Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.

Asked about the comments, Farage said “tough things get said… by both sides of the debate”.

He continued: “This man happens to be the richest man in the world, but equally, the fact that he’s bought Twitter now actually gives us a place where we can have a proper open debate about many things… We may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Earlier this week, Farage distanced himself from Musk’s support for Tommy Robinson – a far-right activist who is serving a jail term for committing contempt of court.

In an interview to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday morning, Farage said the public is “absolutely right to be” angry about grooming gangs.

He went on: “I just think people ask themselves, what has happened to our country? How could this possibly have happened? Why did everybody want to cover it up? Why has there been no full public inquiry?”

On Saturday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended Phillips as “fearless and formidable” and someone who has campaigned “tirelessly for justice for those badly let down by endemic institutional failure” for many years.

In a separate letter seen by the BBC, Phillips and Cooper wrote to the Conservatives setting out why they had asked Oldham Council to set up its own inquiry, rather than grant its request for a government-led one. The previous Conservative government turned down a similar request in 2022.

The letter pointed out the local authority had already started setting up its own inquiry, and added that victims have said “loud and clear” they want action.

“In Oldham the crimes committed by grooming gangs were horrific,” they wrote.

“Young girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the community need to know that all steps are taken to deliver justice and protect children properly in the future.”

They said they supported an independent review commissioned by Mayor Andy Burnham, which covered historic abuse in Oldham and led to a new police investigation, as well as other child protection work across Greater Manchester.

The letter highlighted the work of the Child Sexual Abuse Inquiry, which published its final findings in 2022. It made clear that “abuse must be pursued and challenged everywhere with no fear or favour” – whether in care homes, churches, homes or by grooming gangs.

Professor Alexis Jay, who led that inquiry, said in November she felt “frustrated” that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.

On Friday, Health Secretary West Streeting said the government was getting “on with the job” of implementing the recommendations “in full” since taking office in July.

There have been several investigations into grooming gangs in various parts of England, including Rotherham, Bristol, Cornwall and Derbyshire.

An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham found 1,400 children had been sexually abused over a 16-year period, predominantly by British Pakistani men.

An investigation in Telford found that up to 1,000 girls had been abused over 40 years – and that some cases had not been investigated because of “nervousness about race”.

Police figures from 2023 reveal that group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual offences against children reported to police.

According to the data, 26% of group-based child sexual abuse happened within families, compared with 17% involving groups including grooming gangs.

By BBC News

The post Farage Defends Musk After Grooming Gangs Posts appeared first on KahawaTungu.

Conservatives in Congress – encouraged by tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk – balked.

Republicans tried to regroup on Thursday afternoon, offering a new, slimmed-down package to fund the government. That vote failed, as 38 Republicans joined most Democrats in voting no.

All this political drama provides just a taste of the chaos and unpredictability that could be in store under unified Republican rule in Washington next year.

The man at the centre of this week’s drama holds no official government title or role. What Elon Musk does have, however, is hundreds of billions of dollars, a social media megaphone and the ear not just of the president of the United States but also rank-and-file conservatives in Congress.

On Wednesday morning, the tech tycoon took to X, which he purchased for $44bn two years ago, to disparage a compromise that Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had struck with Democrats to temporarily fund US government operations until mid-March.

As the number of his posts about the proposed agreement stretched into triple digits, at times amplifying factually inaccurate allegations made by conservative commentators, opposition to the legislation in Congress grew.

And by Wednesday evening, Donald Trump – perhaps sensing that he needed to get in front of the growing conservative uprising – publicly stated that he, too, opposed the government funding bill.

He said it contained wasteful spending and Democratic priorities, while also demanding that Congress take the politically sensitive step of raising – or even doing away with – the legal cap on newly issued American debt that the US would reach sometime next summer.

Support for the stopgap spending bill then collapsed, forcing Johnson and his leadership team to scramble to find an alternative path forward. As they did, Musk celebrated, proclaiming that “the voice of the people has triumphed”.

It may be more accurate, however, to say that it was Musk’s voice that triumphed.

On Thursday afternoon, Republicans unveiled a new proposal that suspended the debt limit for the first two years of Trump’s second term, funded the government until March and included some disaster relief and other measures included in the original funding package.

But Musk’s involvement may not land well with some legislators. Democrats in the chamber joked about “President Musk”, while even a few Republicans publicly grumbled.

“Who?” Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson responded when asked about Musk. “I don’t see him in the chamber.”

A majority in name only

Musk may have been the instigator, but this latest congressional funding crisis reveals what has been – and is likely to continue to be – an ongoing challenge for the narrow Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

For two years, Republicans in the chamber have grappled with keeping a united front amidst a party populated, at least in part, by politicians with an active contempt for the government they help to run.

Internal divisions delayed Kevin McCarthy’s election as speaker of the House in January 2022 and led to his removal – a first in American history – the following year. Johnson ultimately replaced him, but only after weeks of leaderless limbo.

Some Republicans had hoped that with Trump’s election, members of their majority, which will become even slimmer when the new Congress is sworn in next month, would be more willing to march in lockstep to support the new president’s agenda. And some are.

“I think President Trump pretty much laid out the plan, so I don’t know what the discussions are about,” Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna told reporters after internal Republican meetings on Thursday afternoon.

What this week has revealed, however, is that the president-elect may not always offer the legislature the clear, consistent direction it requires.

His insistence on raising the debt limit, for instance, caught many in his own party by surprise. And outside influences, such as from Musk or others, could inject extra instability into the process.

If Republicans aren’t able to reach near unanimity in the House, they will have to find ways to win over Democrats if they want to achieve any kind of legislative success. And what this week showed (once again) is that the kind of political compromises necessary could prompt a greater number of Republican defections.

Trump’s party will be challenged to effectively govern on its own – but it also may not be able to tolerate governing with the help of Democrats.

If there is no political equilibrium in the chamber, it would put Trump’s more ambitious legislative priorities at risk before he even takes office.

Republicans may yet find a way to avoid a lengthy government shutdown through a temporary budget resolution, even though the first round of pressure from Trump resulted in an embarrassing failure to win enough support within his own party.

For Johnson, however, the damage may have already been done. His authority over House Republicans has been undercut – first by Musk and then by Trump – just a few weeks before he stands for re-election as speaker of the House.

Already one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has said he will not support Johnson’s re-election. Others, including members of Johnson’s own leadership team, have been noncommittal. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Georgia congresswoman who unsuccessfully pushed to remove Johnson in May, suggested Musk become speaker.

Meanwhile, Trump – the one man who could throw Johnson a lifeline – has been equivocal, telling Fox News that Johnson could “easily” remain speaker if he “acts decisively and tough”.

Decisiveness may not be enough, however, when every direction for the speaker appears to lead to a dead end.

By BBC News

The post Musk Flexes Influence Over Congress in Shutdown Drama appeared first on KahawaTungu.

The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk.

Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: “[S]hareholders should control company votes, not judges.”

Tesla vowed to appeal the ruling, saying the decision was “wrong”.

“This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,” the company said in a post on X.

Judge McCormick said the pay package would have been the largest ever for the boss of a listed company.

Tesla failed to prove the pay package, which dates back to 2018, was fair, she said.

A shareholder vote on the payment passed by 75% in June, but the judge did not agree the pay should be so large despite what she called Tesla’s lawyers’ “creative” arguments.

“Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” she wrote in her opinion.

The judge also ruled the Tesla shareholder who brought the case against Tesla and Mr Musk should receive $345m in fees but not the $5.6bn in Tesla shares they asked for.

Some observers said a ruling in favour of Mr Musk and Tesla would have dealt a blow to conflict of interest laws in Delaware.

“The idea of conflict rules is to protect all investors” not just minority investors, said Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

Mr Elson said Judge McCormick’s opinion was well-reasoned.

“You had a board that wasn’t independent, a process that was dominated by the CEO, and a package that was way out of any sort of reasonable bounds,” he said. “It’s quite a combo.”

Mr Elson said he expects Tesla might try to reconstitute a similar pay package in Texas where the company moved its legal base earlier this year after the pay ruling.

By BBC News

The post Musk’s Record $56 Billion Pay Deal Rejected for Second Time appeared first on KahawaTungu.

Attorneys representing the billionaire and his AI startup, xAI, filed the injunction Friday, the financial news site reported.

The injunction also requests that OpenAI be stopped from allegedly barring its investors from funding competing companies.

The post Elon Musk Asks US Court to Block OpenAi’s For-profit Conversion appeared first on KahawaTungu.

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The tech billionaire’s declaration that “these judges need to go,” splashed across all of Italy’s front pages, came amidst increasing tension between Italy’s ruling coalition and the judiciary after a panel of Rome magistrates questioned the legality of a government initiative to detain asylum-seekers in Albania.

Musk prompted a highly unusual statement from Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who told him not to interfere in Italian affairs.

“Italy is a great democratic country and… knows how to take care of itself,” said Mattarella.

“Anyone, particularly if, as announced, he is about to assume an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot take it upon himself to issue instructions.”

Musk, who owns Tesla and X, has recently been picked by Donald Trump to head up his planned new Department of Government Efficiency.

He has also developed close ties with Giorgia Meloni since she was elected over two years ago on the promise of cracking down on illegal migration.

Two processing centres in Albania, built and managed by the Italian government to help manage the migrant flow in the Mediterranean towards Italy, soon became the symbol of her hard stance on migration.

But delays in the project, legal hurdles and human rights concerns, as well as doubts about cost-effectiveness, have undermined its success so far.

Last week a Rome court ordered the transfer of seven Egyptian and Bangladeshi asylum seekers from one of the two centres to Italy.

The court had already ruled last month against the detention of other migrants from the same countries in Albania, a decision that the Italian prime minister had labelled “prejudicial”.

The two centres are currently empty, and Italian authorities are scaling back the number of staff on the ground.

Since then, the debate in Italy has become increasingly heated, with Meloni and other members of her government regularly attacking the country’s judiciary, until Musk also weighed in.

The legal controversy revolves around an October ruling by the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ), stating that no country of origin can be deemed safe if any part of it is dangerous.

This poses further challenges to Italy’s policy of repatriating migrants without visas.

While the ruling referred to a Czech case, it also applies to the entire EU and complicates Italy’s plans for detention centres in Albania meant to fast-track repatriations.

The Rome court has halted these actions pending further clarification from the ECJ.

The project has attracted the attention of several leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who are themselves seeking to stem illegal migration.

During an official visit last September, Starmer praised Meloni’s “remarkable progress” on tackling irregular arrivals by sea, while Meloni said her counterpart showed “great interest” in her country’s deal with Albania.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for the exploration of “return hubs” outside the EU. In a letter to European leaders on irregular migration, she cited the deal between Italy and Albania as a potential model.

Several observers, however, have raised concerns over the actual impact of these centres, should they ever start operating at full capacity.

“Aside from the delays in the implementation of the operation, I view the project as a distraction from more pressing issues that should be on the agenda, such as better allocation of funds and the creation of a functioning asylum system overall,” said Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

“Regardless of whether it works or not, this is just a drop in the ocean.”

Italy’s incendiary political discourse shows no sign of dying down.

The judiciary here has been accused of obstructing government before.

Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was charged with violation of antitrust law, money laundering, and tax fraud and faced prosecution for several other crimes over the years, repeatedly attacked judges, calling them “communist”.

Meloni’s coalition partner, Matteo Salvini, echoed his words saying judges who twisted Italy’s laws should resign and go into politics with the “refounded communists”.

“Demonising those whose role is to ensure that the law is upheld could pose a real danger,” Neidhardt warned.

According to Italian reports, Meloni and Musk have since spoken about the controversy. Musk is said to have expressed his respect for the Italian president, a report confirmed by Andrea Stroppa, a close confidant of Musk in Italy.

Stroppa, however, added that Musk also “emphasises that freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment and the Italian constitution itself; therefore, as a citizen, he will continue to freely express his opinions”.

By BBC News

The post Musk Rebuked After Siding with Meloni on Italy’s Foreign Migrant Centres appeared first on KahawaTungu.

In a statement on social media, the US president-elect said Musk – along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy – would “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.

It is a role that the tech entrepreneur has arguably prepared for through his business leadership, and one he has spent months arguing for.

But it is also one that is expected to garner him influence over government policy – and the regulatory environment his enterprises exist in.

Musk told a Trump rally in October that he believed the US government’s budget could be reduced by “at least” $2tn from around $6.5tn. He has also frequently suggested the number of government employees could be significantly reduced.

Ramaswamy meanwhile has put forward plans to scrap a number of federal departments including the Department of Education, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI.

From Twitter to pared-down X

The way Musk has run his own firms may hint at what Americans can expect when he begins attempting to slash government waste.

In October 2022, Musk took over social media platform Twitter – which he rebranded as X – in a $44bn (£38.1bn) deal.

He said he had decided to buy the site so he could remove its policies of moderating content and banning users who had deemed to have violated its rules on hate speech and disinformation.

Among the users he reinstated was Trump, who had been banned following the Capitol riot in January 2021 after continuing to claim the 2020 election had been rigged against him.

Musk’s takeover saw radical changes to the company.

He reduced X’s workforce from around 8,000 to 1,500. In April 2023, he told the BBC that his reasoning for doing so was that “if the whole ship sinks, then nobody’s got a job”.

Facing a mass exodus of advertisers over his relaxation of the platform’s user speech policies, the entrepreneur also monetised elements of the site to raise revenue.

He turned its blue ticks – which previously denoted that a high-profile account was bona fide – into a subscription model, and tied advertising payments to “verified” users to the number of interactions they receive. Musk also tied interactions to these users’ prominence, meaning their posts that did well were more likely to be seen by other users.

And he introduced Grok, a paid-for artificial intelligence chatbot that could be used to generate content.

But these changes had some unintended consequences.

X has now given gold or silver ticks to brands and official accounts to avoid them being confused with fakes after several, including the BBC, opted not to pay for them – effectively meaning blue ticks only signify that an account is paid-for.

Incentivising users with a share of advertising revenues also gave an avenue for so-called bot farms to make money by posting auto-generated content to gain more interactions. Musk has said his team has repeatedly purged bot accounts.

Critics argue his changes have given prominence to hate-speech and misinformation- though he has argued the site is politically neutral.

“As a serial entrepreneur, Musk has been relentless in trying to improve institutional efficiency at his own enterprises, most notably, Tesla and X,” says Thomas Gift, a professor of US politics at University College London.

He adds that though Musk’s primary role will be “slashing through the thicket of red tape that is the US federal government”, his position will also give him influence in the new administration.

“While his role in the Department of Government Efficiency will be a more informal one, there’s no doubt that he’s got Trump ear – at least for the moment.”

Railing against regulation

Musk’s calls for a Doge are themselves a reference to a meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog, which then gave its name to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Both of which have been frequently referred to by him online.

But the calls may come in part from frustrations he has had with his other business ventures: electric vehicle company Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.

Tesla has repeatedly been accused by the US government of trying to prevent its workers unionising – which in some cases can be against the law. Tesla is one of 13 car manufacturers where the auto workers’ union is not recognised.

Musk – who has an estimated net worth of $290bn (£228bn) – has previously said he is “not against all unions”, but that the auto workers’ union “has a track record of destroying productivity so a company can’t compete”.

In September Musk threatened to sue the Federal Aviation Administration over its plans to fine his SpaceX company $633,000 for alleged license infringements related to some of its rocket launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He accused the agency of “regulatory overreach”.

He has also repeatedly said he wants to colonise Mars, and SpaceX’s Starship programme is an attempt to make that possible.

But in September, he wrote that this was only a possibility “so long as it is not smothered by bureaucracy” and claimed Doge was “the only path to extending life beyond Earth”.

So is part of his motivation for taking on the role his various US-based business interests?

“There’s no doubt that Musk has significant vested interests in the US regulatory landscape as a result of his many business enterprises,” says Prof Gift.

“At the same time, it’s hard to make the case that this is the only impetus driving him.

“Musk has undertaken huge personal and political risks in coming out for Trump, and many of his activities and rhetoric seem to reflect an individual ideologically committed to causes he believes in.”

Reward for loyalty

Musk donated a reported $200m (£157m) to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, and appeared to speak at several of his rallies.

As the South African-born billionaire is not a US citizen by birth, he cannot become president – something that has frustrated other famous faces who became involved in politics in the past.

But Musk can have an influence on US policy, and Trump will have a sympathetic adviser to call upon.

“Trump is looking to surround himself with loyalists in his new administration, and there’s no one who’s been more loyal than Musk since he announced his endorsement for Trump,” says Prof Gift.

“Not only did Musk go ‘all in’ in supporting Trump personally and financially during the campaign, but he’s also evolved into a trusted adviser on topics as diverse as technology policy to the war in Ukraine.”

In an early sign of the influence the tech entrepreneur may be rewarded with for his loyalty, Musk was party to a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following the election. The war in Ukraine will be a major foreign policy concern when Trump takes office.

By BBC News

The post Why is Elon Musk Becoming Donald Trump’s Efficiency Tsar? appeared first on KahawaTungu.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said in a statement.

The announcement of Ramaswamy and particularly Musk, who leads companies with existing, lucrative government contracts, raises immediate questions about potential conflicts of interest. And it is not immediately clear how the department, which Trump said would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” will operate.

Trump had proposed the creation of a government efficiency commission as part of a slate of new economic plans that he unveiled in early September. At the time, he said Musk had agreed to lead it if he were to secure a return to the White House.

Trump’s statement Tuesday night quoted Musk as saying that “this will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”

Ramaswamy separately responded on X with a slogan he often used during his presidential campaign to call for the elimination of federal agencies, writing: “SHUT IT DOWN.”

On the campaign trail, Trump pointed to his proposed government efficiency commission as a way to reduce government spending. “As the first order of business, this commission will develop an action plan to totally eliminate fraud and improper payments within six months,” he said in September. “This will save trillions of dollars.”

Ramaswamy, who previously challenged Trump in the Republican presidential primary before endorsing him in January, made reducing waste in government spending a key policy platform for his campaign.

Last year, Ramaswamy – who had promised on the campaign trail to eliminate the FBI, the Department of Education and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which would lay off thousands of federal workers in the process – released a white paper outlining a legal framework he said would allow the president to eliminate federal agencies of his choice.

Musk, for his part, said while supporting Trump on the campaign trail that he’d pitch a massive rollback of government regulations, which he has long griped about. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has also floated an assessment system that threatens layoffs to wasteful employees and proposed offering generous severance packages to laid-off government workers.

The work of the department will end no later than July 4, 2026, Trump said in the statement.

“A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!” he added.

By Agencies

The post Trump Says Elon Musk Will Head New ‘Department Of Government Efficiency’ Alongside Vivek Ramaswamy appeared first on KahawaTungu.

The world’s richest man spent election night in Florida with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort as returns came in.

“The people of America gave @realDonaldTrump a crystal clear mandate for change tonight,” Mr Musk wrote on the social media platform X as Trump’s victory began to appear all but certain.

And at his victory speech at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump spent several minutes praising Mr Musk and recounting the successful landing of a rocket manufactured by one of Mr Musk’s companies, SpaceX.

Mr Musk threw his support behind the Republican almost immediately after the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.

As one of the president-elect’s most important backers, the tech billionaire donated more than $119m (£92m) to fund a Super PAC aimed at re-electing Trump.

He also spent the last weeks before election day running a get-out-the-vote effort in the battleground states, which included a daily giveaway of $1m to voters in those states. The giveaway became the subject of a legal challenge, though a judge later ruled they could go ahead.

After throwing his name, money, and platform behind Trump, Mr Musk has plenty to gain from Trump’s re-election.

The president-elect has said that in a second term, he would invite Mr Musk into his administration to eliminate government waste.

Mr Musk has referred to the potential effort as the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, the name of a meme and cryptocurrency that he has popularised.

The businessman could also benefit from Trump’s presidency through his ownership of SpaceX, which already dominates the business of sending government satellites to space.

With a close ally in the White House, Mr Musk could seek to further capitalise on those government ties.

Mr Musk has criticised rivals including Boeing for the structure of their government contracts, which he says disincentive finishing projects on budget and on time.

SpaceX has also moved into building spy satellites just as the Pentagon and American spy agencies appear poised to invest billions of dollars into them.

Mr Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla could meanwhile reap gains from an administration that Trump has said would be defined by “the lowest regulatory burden.”

Just last month, the US agency in charge of regulating road safety revealed it was probing Tesla’s self-driving software systems.

Mr Musk has also come under fire for allegedly seeking to block Tesla workers from unionising. The United Auto Workers filed unfair labour practice charges against both Trump and Musk after the two talked about Musk supposedly firing striking workers during a conversation on X.

Trump has also pledged to lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy.

That’s another promise Mr Musk is likely hoping he will keep.

By BBC News

The post What Musk Could Gain from a Trump Presidency appeared first on KahawaTungu.