<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/trump-conflict-of-interest>
"The South Lawn of the White House had never seen anything like it. The
president of the United States was posing for the world’s media against a
backdrop of five different models of Tesla, peddling the electric vehicles with
the alacrity of a salesman on commission.
“I love the product, it’s beautiful,” Donald Trump said as he sank into the
driver’s seat of a scarlet Model Y. With the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, beside him,
he went on to enlighten the American people that some Tesla models retail for
as little as $299 a month, “which is pretty low”.
That same day, within hours of the White House’s makeover into a Tesla
showroom, the
New York Times revealed that Musk had decided to invest $100m
in political groups working for Trump. The massive injection of capital would
enhance the nearly $300m Musk had already spent getting Trump elected.
A week after the commercial on the South Lawn, on 19 March, Trump’s commerce
secretary, the billionaire investment banker Howard Lutnick, went on
Fox News
and exhorted viewers to “buy Tesla”. “Who wouldn’t invest in Elon Musk’s
stock?” he gushed. “He is probably the best person to bet on I’ve ever met.”
At the time Lutnick made those remarks, he had yet to divest himself from
Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm he had led for 35 years. He was
talking up stock in which he still had a vested interest – Cantor held $300m in
Tesla shares, a stake that has since soared to $555m. And the commerce
secretary was also bigging up his friend Musk, whose SpaceX and Starlink
businesses are regulated by the commerce department that Lutnick now
controlled.
Eight days in March, three friendly billionaires, one of them the world’s most
powerful person, another the world’s richest person. Doing what friends do:
scratching each other’s backs. Even though Musk later fell out with Trump – in
a shocking social media spat that roiled US politics – the imagery remains
powerful and highly symbolic of Trump’s second term in the White House.
Between them they committed in those eight days acts that, had they occurred
during any previous presidency – including Trump’s own first administration –
would have provoked howls of protest concerning quid pro quo. Yet those eight
days represent just a tiny slice of the graft and possible misconduct that is
unfolding."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
