Musk Is Too Wealthy to Be Corrupted by means of Conflicts of Hobby

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu mentioned that Elon Musk is “so wealthy” that he’s “got rid of from the prospective monetary affect” in the case of conflicts of passion associated with his long term paintings in govt. In different phrases, Musk is simply too rich to most likely use his imminent govt place to additional enrich himself.

President Donald Trump has named Musk to steer a brand new Division of Executive Potency (DOGE), main many to fret that the tech billionaire would funnel govt budget to his personal firms like SpaceX, which advantages from federal contracts to the music of billions of bucks.

However Sununu believes Musk is simply too flush with money to most likely need extra govt cash, so why would he use his place as a central authority regulator to learn himself and his companies?

“One of the crucial criticisms and the worries is that [Musk] has billions of bucks tied up in govt contracts. You don’t see a war of passion right here?” host Dana Bash requested the outgoing New Hampshire governor all through a Sunday interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

“Everybody has a war of passion at some degree,” Sununu mentioned, brushing the query apart.

“However that’s like a fairly large one,” Bash famous.

“True,” Sununu mentioned. “The man’s value $450 billion as of these days and this month. So I don’t assume he’s doing it for the cash. He’s doing it for the larger mission and the larger imaginative and prescient of The united states. He doesn’t want the greenbacks. He in point of fact doesn’t. So it’s now not about, oh, if I am getting concerned on this, I will be able to get every other little contract right here or there. That’s not anything to him. So I really like the truth that he’s — in some way, he’s so wealthy, he’s so got rid of from the prospective monetary affect of it.”

So, consistent with Sununu, the richest guy on the planet can’t be influenced by means of the enchantment of profitable govt contracts as a result of he already has so much and quite a lot of cash. It’s a daft argument.

SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace corporate, has gained just about $20 billion in federal govt contracts since 2008. In fiscal 12 months 2024 by myself, SpaceX raked in $3.8 billion in U.S. govt contracts.

Past that, Musk may benefit from a massive non-public tax damage due to a get advantages to be had to federal officers and his long term function main DOGE as what Trump has described as his “secretary of cost-cutting.”

Whilst Musk is raking in money due to the federal government, thousands and thousands of American citizens may endure if the Trump management makes cuts to cornerstone entitlement systems like Social Safety and Medicare — advantages maximum running American citizens have paid into since they started their careers.

However Sununu isn’t nervous. In reality, he says Social Safety and Medicare cuts “will have to be at the desk.”

“[Cuts] will have to be at the desk,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t imply they’ve to do it the following day, however they a minimum of need to assume constructively. OK, we can arrange a fee, we can arrange tips, we can arrange metrics.”