New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) dismissed concerns about potential conflict of interests arising from right-wing billionaire Elon Musk acting as an adviser to Donald Trump.
In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday Sununu called Musk a wealthy “outsider” and praised Trump for taking advice from billionaires.
“One of the criticisms and the concerns is that he has billions of dollars tied up in government contracts, you don’t see a conflict of interest here?” host Dana Bash asked.
“Everyone has a conflict of interest,” Sununu said. “The guy’s worth 450 billion as of today in this month. So I don’t think he’s doing it for the money. He’s doing it for the bigger project and the bigger vision of America. He doesn’t need the dollars…So it’s not about, if I get involved in this, I’ll get another little contract here or there. That’s nothing to him.”
“I like the fact that he in a way, he’s so rich, he’s so removed from the potential financial influence of it,” he added.
However, what Sununu fail to mention was that Musk’s wealth is due to government contracts and programs that affected his businesses, mainly Tesla and SpaceX.
Both businesses survived their early days with assistance from state and federal policies, government contracts and loans.
Now Trump has appointed Musk as co-chair of the ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE), an advisory panel tasked with proposing massive cuts in spending and regulations.
Critics have pointed out that Musk’s proposed cuts could hurt popular programs while improving his bottom line.
“The real danger here is that Trump is asking us to trust Musk’s advice and recommendations on how to slash the reach of government when Musk has billions of dollars in government contracts and he and his businesses are subject to important health, safety, and financial laws and regulations enforced by numerous federal agencies,” Larry Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission told The Guardian.
Other ethics watchdogs agree.
“Elon Musk is a walking conflict of interest,” Craig Holman, a top lobbyist for the liberal Public Citizen watchdog group said.
“With a net worth of almost $475bn, ownership or investments in SpaceX, Tesla, X, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency, and billions of dollars in federal contracts supporting his business interests, any role he plays in cutting the federal budget and shaping government policies is very likely to have a direct and substantial impact on his bottom line,” Holman added.
