President Donald Trump Wednesday night once more asserted that he put billionaire Elon Musk “in cost” of his “Division of Authorities Effectivity,” contradicting his personal Division of Justice, which is claiming that Musk is merely a White Home adviser with no authority.
“I signed an order creating the Division of Authorities Effectivity and put a person named Elon Musk in cost,” Trump mentioned at a Saudi Arabian monetary convention in Miami Seashore, with Musk sitting within the viewers. “Thanks, Elon, for doing it. And he’s doing a terrific job.”
Musk has repeatedly claimed that he and his band of assistants who’re at present rampaging by means of varied federal company pc techniques have discovered “fraud” and “corruption,” and that consequently he has canceled contracts, laid off employees and even eradicated businesses.
Trump’s remarks will doubtless present but extra proof for the Trump critics who’ve been submitting authorized challenges in opposition to DOGE’s layoffs and cancellations of contracts and grants, on the grounds that Musk’s efforts to chop the federal government are unlawful as a result of Musk has no precise authority to make these choices. To counter that argument, DOJ attorneys filed an affidavit from a White Home official on Monday stating that, on the contrary, Musk is only a White Home adviser amongst many and that he’s not in command of DOGE. DOGE’s precise administrator, who up to now has not been recognized, is the particular person truly making the cuts, the DOJ has argued.
“Mr. Musk has no precise or formal authority to make authorities choices himself,” wrote Joshua Fisher, director of the White Home Workplace of Administration. “Mr. Musk is an worker within the White Home workplace. He isn’t an worker of the U.S. DOGE Service. … Musk shouldn’t be the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”
Trump has spent most of his Florida journey at his two nation golf equipment, the place he’s performed golf on 4 of the final six days. He spoke for about an hour, bragging about his election win in November, claiming he has finished extra in 4 weeks than former President Joe Biden did in 4 years and telling varied tales from his first time period, earlier than turning to Ukraine and its battle to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump referred to as the democratically elected Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” who had provoked Russia’s assault, simply as he had earlier within the day in a social media post.
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“A dictator with out elections — Zelenskyy higher transfer sooner. He’s not going to have a rustic left,” Trump instructed his viewers.
The president additionally repeated varied falsehoods about how a lot help the US has offered to Ukraine in comparison with how a lot has come from European nations.
Trump now for a number of days has disparaged Ukraine for having been invaded by Russia. He has referred to as on Ukraine to make a lot of concessions to finish the warfare, together with turning over rights to useful minerals to the US and ceding some territory to Russia. Trump has not publicly requested Putin, who truly is a dictator and who he referred to as a “genius” and “savvy” when he started the invasion in 2022, to make any concessions.
