A Fox News correspondent on Sunday roasted the latest Republican senator in Ohio about whether the Tesla Photo Opp of Donald Trump was an appropriate use of the presidency.
Bernie Moreno, a car dealer mogul who defeated former Senator Sherrod Brown for the latter’s seat in the 2024 election, was asked by the Fox senior correspondent of the White House, Jacqui Heinrich, about the ethics of the president who transforms the White House grass into a car. Executive, Elon Musk is promoted.
Moreno summarized the demand for Musk’s obvious conflict of interest and told Heinrich he thought it was good for the president to celebrate a US brand at a time when the Trump administration threatened a full-scale trade war with a number of US allies, including Canada.
“He is not the first president to do this. Most presidents have done such a thing in the past, ‘Moreno claims.
But Moreno was not further questioned by Heinrich about whether he thought it was acceptable to a senior assistant for the president to essentially get the national spotlight to promote his personal business interests. Instead, the interview ended with a Snarky Quip pointed at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a regular target of the right: “I think we’ll have to find out if AOC still has her Tesla or not,” Heinrich joked.
The president’s second term in the White House accelerated the feeling of personal Grif that Washington permeated during his first four years. The use of the White House grass to advertise the personal enterprise of his careful advisor is only the latest example. Trump and his family launched a ‘memecoin’ cryptocurrency before his inauguration in January and jumped aboard an online investment trend as a refuge for scams and ‘pump-and-dump’ schemes.
Musk himself has also positioned himself to pay off Trump’s second term, while at the same time, in efforts to support Republican candidates and causes across the country through his America PAC and other related groups. At Nasa, Musk, meanwhile, oversees the cutting of staff while his own SpaceX remains a major contractor for the agency. Doge is also aimed at other agencies that have picked up against Musk’s own financial interests in the past – the SEC and NLRB among them.
Musk, who was not confirmed by the congress and unofficially part of the White House, nevertheless placed himself in the cabinet meetings and followed the 47th president like a shadow, often appearing in Mar-a-Lago and other trumps with Trump.
In some cases, its influence overshadowed Trump’s own cabinet secretaries and caused conflict, as agencies differed in their reactions to Doge’s efforts, ranging from a very enthusiastic acceptance to furious resistance. At one meeting, the X chief allegedly collided with Marco Rubio, the country’s top diplomat and head of the State Department, about Doge’s firing – with the couple who openly mocked each other before stunned spectators and a confused Trump.
