Trump Warns Media: “You Cannot Drive Me and Elon Musk Apart”

The New Diplomat
Writer

Ad

Oil Prices Rally as the Geopolitical Risk Premium Rebuilds

Light crude oil futures rose for the week, closing Thursday at $63.52, up $1.54 or +2.48% from last Friday’s close, as geopolitical tensions, bullish inventory data, and renewed demand optimism drove a shift in market sentiment. The recovery followed two weeks of selling pressure and marked a return of bullish interest as supply-side risks reentered…

Japan designates Kisarazu as official hometown for Nigerians

In a landmark move to boost cultural ties and economic cooperation, the Government of Japan has designated the city of Kisarazu as the official hometown for Nigerians wishing to live and work in the country. The announcement was made on Thursday on the sidelines of the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), held…

FG to raise N200bn through two bond offers at August auction

By Obinna Uballa The Debt Management Office (DMO) has announced plans to raise N200 billion through two Federal Government bond offerings scheduled for auction on August 25, 2025. According to a notice issued by the DMO on Friday, the subscription price for each bond is fixed at N1,000 per unit, with a minimum subscription requirement…

Ad

By Kolawole Ojebisi

United States President, Donald Trump, has said the media can’t drive a wedge into the rosy relationship between himself and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla, Elon Musk.

Trump dismissed media depictions of Elon Musk as the real power in the White House as a ploy to breed bad blood between himself and the tech billionaire.

“They do it all the time,” the US president says in excerpts posted Saturday from a Fox News interview to be aired Tuesday.

Speaking as if in a news anchor’s voice, Trump went on, “We have breaking news: Donald Trump has ceded control of the presidency to Elon Musk. President Musk will be attending a cabinet meeting tonight…”

The US president is famously prickly about being outshone by anyone in his entourage, and there has been widespread speculation that Musk’s high profile could lead to his downfall.

The South African-born Musk, while nominally just the head of a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), has taken on extraordinarily broad powers in identifying what he says are areas of waste and then moving quickly to cut jobs and spending.

Those moves by the world’s wealthiest person have drawn jibes in the press, including a Time magazine cover showing Musk sitting behind the president’s iconic Resolute Desk, and a New Yorker cover showing both Trump and Musk, hands on a Bible, together taking the presidential oath of office.

Trump so far has been publicly supportive of Musk’s work, which the president says is vitally important at a time of soaring budget deficits.

In the Fox interview, Trump said he and Musk had discussed the media mockery.

“Actually, Elon called me,” the president said. “He said, ‘You know, they’re trying to drive us apart.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’”

Trump added that Americans understood what the media allegedly were up to.

“I used to think they were good at it,” Trump said. “They’re actually bad at it, because if they were good at it, I’d never be president.”

“The people are smart,” he went on. “They get it.” Amid all the criticism, Musk has continued to draw an intense media focus, including in an Oval Office appearance in which a casually dressed Musk brought his four-year-old son and spoke at greater length than the president.

Democrats have seized on the awkwardly dynamic outing and opinion polls showing negative views of the Tesla and SpaceX boss, to outpace positive outings

But Trump, in the meantime, seems to be enjoying some of his highest approval ratings ever.

Ad

X whatsapp