--- title: "Touchy Trump Insists That He’s Not Taking Orders From Elon Musk" description: "President-elect Donald Trump shot down claims that Elon Musk is quietly giving the orders with a jab at his ally." date: "2024-12-23" modified: "2024-12-23" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-president-not-musk" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "the digest" --- # Touchy Trump Insists That He’s Not Taking Orders From Elon Musk ![President-elect Donald Trump shot down claims that Elon Musk is quietly giving the orders with a jab at his ally.]() *PHOENIX, ARIZONA - DECEMBER 22: Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk is silhouetted against a large video of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The annual four day conference geared toward energizing and connecting conservative youth hosts some of the country's leading conservative politicians and activists. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images) \Image: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images\* ## Pecking Order Donald Trump is starting to sound markedly testy about people insinuating that his "First Buddy" Elon Musk is the real one running the show. During an appearance on Sunday at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, the Republican president-elect mocked the idea that he's "ceded the presidency" to Musk as just the latest "hoax" that his opponents are trying to smear him with. "No, he's not taking the presidency," Trump [told his audience of supporters](). Moments later, he doubled down with a smug-sounding jab at Musk about his birthplace — with perhaps a little too much zest. "No, he's not going to be president, that I can tell you," Trump repeated. "And I'm safe. You know why he can't be? He wasn't born in this country," he added, giggling. ## Twitter Tantrum It's true that Musk, having been born in South Africa, is disqualified from literally heading up the Oval Office. But Trump's comments do little to convince critics that the world's richest man, who donated over $200 million to get Trump elected, isn't the one calling the shots from behind the scenes. They only demonstrate that the "President Musk" jokes are living in his head. And the critics have a point. Musk made one of his most blatant displays of power last Wednesday when he essentially [commanded Republicans to kill a bipartisan spending bill]() that would prevent a government shutdown. While Trump was probably still in bed, Musk was up at 4:00 am lambasting the funding resolution on his website X-formerly-Twitter, posting over one hundred times within the day. Any Republican that didn't oppose the bill, Musk threatened to unseat with his own candidate. It worked. Even before Trump belatedly issued his decree in the afternoon to finish the bill off, its support had already crumbled. And there was Musk triumphantly straddling the ruins, declaring the battle won. ## Opti-Musk Prime Trump [has since claimed]() that he told Musk to publicly put pressure on the bill. Even if that's true, his fellow Republicans are crediting Musk's leadership for the victory, [*Axios* reports](). "It's kind of interesting, we have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker," observed Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) in an interview Sunday on *CBS News,* per *Axios*. "It feels like Elon Musk is our prime minister." Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) even floated the idea of making Musk Speaker of the House. "Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk," Paul posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. **More on Trump:** *[Elon Musk Bullies Congress Into Cutting Funding for Child Cancer Research]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()