MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out the power plays that Elon Musk appeared to pull over President Donald Trump during their Oval Office press conference on Tuesday.
Musk stood over Trump “delivering a picture of presidential subservience the likes of which we have never seen,” said O’Donnell. It was “the most powerless image of a President of the United States ever created by a camera,” said “The Last Word” host.
Tech billionaire Musk, who Trump has tasked with slashing public pending via the non-official Department of Government Efficiency, did “everything he possibly can to tell the world, without saying a word, that ‘Donald Trump is not the boss of me,’” said O’Donnell.
Musk, the world’s richest person, also “violated” other White House norms, said O’Donnell, with his casual attire, the presence of his child and by talking more than Trump.
By O’Donnell’s reckoning, Musk spoke 3,666 words while defending the work of DOGE, compared to Trump’s 2,487 words.
Trump’s first-term Vice President Mike Pence “never had a day like that in the Oval Office with Donald Trump,” said O’Donnell.
And Trump’s current Vice President JD Vance “will never have a day like that in the Oval Office with Donald Trump because Donald Trump is the boss of JD Vance,” he added.
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