MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday suggested Elon Musk had suffered “a humiliating demotion” at the hands of Donald Trump after the president-elect handed the billionaire a non-official governmental role.
But “the theory that Elon Musk might become, in effect, a co-president or the real president, while Donald Trump in effect retires to a life of golfing, suffered a significant setback tonight when Donald Trump announced that he would give Elon Musk a job that does not exist and will last, at most, 18 months,” said O’Donnell.
Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy were announced by Trump as the new heads of a Department of Government Efficiency that is tasked with routing public spending and red tape. Trump has given them until July 2026 to complete their mission.
That Trump gave Musk a working partner is the “worst of all,” said O’Donnell, noting how Musk also had to share the press statement.
The “funniest part of the Trump press release announcing Elon Musk’s appointment to a position that does not exist, in which he is being forced by Donald Trump to work with someone else who knows nothing about the subject he’s been assigned […] is that they are both going to be the first people kicked out of the Trump government” as it states their work “will conclude no later than July 4, 2026,” said O’Donnell.
Trump “now just might know enough about government to know how humiliating this is going to be for Elon Musk,” he added.