Trump: I test conflicts of interest

Tech billionaire debate

Trump: I test conflicts of interest

One document gave the impression that a US Ministry wants to spend $ 400 million for Tesla cars. Entered incorrectly, it is now said. Trump wants to dispel concern to Tesla boss Musk.

According to his words, US President Donald Trump personally makes sure that Tech billionaire Elon Musk does not misuse his role as a cost lower in the government. Trump said this on questions from journalists in the Oval Office. So far there had been called the White House, Musk took care that there were no conflicts of interest. Among other things, it leads the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the SpaceX space company.

Trump rejected the worries that Musk could use the position in the government to give his company an advantage. First Musk would not do anything like that, he said. “Secondly, we wouldn’t let him do anything where there is a conflict of interest.”

Meanwhile, Musk met with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington. In photos that were spread via Modi’s account at Musk’s online platform X, it could be seen that they were sitting in front of the flags of the two countries.

One of the photos showed that chairs were occupied by members of his delegation on Modi’s side of the space – several children sat with two companions. Trump said on journalist questions that he did not know whether Musk modes had met as a representative of the US government or as an entrepreneur. “I assume he wants to do business in India.”

Most recently, the mention of a $ 400 million (EUR 380 million) had caused Tesla to be excited in the U.S. State Department’s purchase forecast. From the beginning, the document should have been mentioned only generally of armored electric vehicles, a foreign office spokesman explained on request. The entry was adjusted accordingly. At the same time, the Ministry emphasized that there are currently no plans to start the tender for it at all.

The Tesla mention that first the blog “Drop site news” had discovered, caused a sensation in the face of Musk’s task in the government. Tesla had the first drop in sales in more than a decade last year – large government orders would be very important.

Musks team named Doge (Department of Government Efficiency) is currently researching one US authority after another. The tech billionaire claims that they have discovered a weight of billions of millions and fraud. Some of the examples he mentioned turned out to be wrong. Written documents have not yet been published.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the entry in the expenditure planning was still based on an instruction from the government of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden to explore the willingness of the industry to deliver armored vehicles for the foreign office. Only one manufacturer reacted to this, it said as an obvious explanation of how the name Tesla came into the purchase forecast in December. According to the document, the Foreign Ministry also plans to buy BMW vehicles armored for $ 40 million.

The announcement of the Tesla entry had triggered speculation that the big vehicles of the electrical pickup is best “Cyberruck” would be suitable. Since Tesla itself does not build an armored car, a large part of an order would go to the conversion of specialized companies. Musk, on his part, claimed in recent years that the steel of the “Cyberruck”-Kaross series is so thick that balls bounced on them on them.