By Michael Scherer · The Washington Post (c) 2024
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) wrote a letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Monday to request clear and transparent conflict-of-interest rules that would bind Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, during his role as a top Trump adviser.
The letter sent by email from the Democrat’s Senate office to Trump’s transition team notes that regular members of the Trump Vance 2025 Transition Team operate under an ethics policy that requires them to “avoid both actual and apparent conflicts of interest.” Those rules, which have been published by the General Services Administration, include prohibition from transition team members working “on particular matters involving specific parties that affect” their interests.
Musk, who is worth $474 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump president and has since embraced the label “first buddy” to describe his role. He has been a frequent presence at Trump’s side, advising on government formation and taking a lead role in a new effort to cut federal spending. It is not clear what ethics rules, if any, Musk, has agreed to follow in his role as a Trump adviser.
“Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes,” Warren wrote. “As your Transition Team Ethics Plan makes clear, the role of government is not to line the pockets of the wealthiest Americans; a strong, enforceable ethics plan for the world’s richest man is a necessary first step for delivering on that promise.”
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the transition, did not address Musk’s ethics commitments in her response to the letter. She instead addressed Warren with a derogatory nickname that Trump has used to describe Warren because of her claims to having some Native American ancestry.
“President Trump has assembled the most impressive and qualified team of innovators, entrepreneurs, and geniuses to advise and staff our government,” Leavitt said in a statement. “Pocahontas can play political games and send toothless letters, but the Trump-Vance transition will continue to be held to the highest ethical and legal standards possible – a standard unfamiliar to a career politician whose societal impact is 1/1024th of Elon Musk’s.”
During the presidential campaign, Musk became a top surrogate for Trump, holding events in Pennsylvania, making media appearances and staging a high-profile cash giveaway to encourage voter engagement. Trump promised if elected to accelerate federal plans to land a mission on Mars, a major priority of Musk’s rocket company Space X. Tesla, another company Musk runs, receives federal funding for its electric vehicle charging stations, and several of his companies have significant regulatory issues before the government.
The National Highway Safety Administration is investigating Tesla for several pedestrian accidents. Musk recently posted a response to a “settlement demand” from the Securities and Exchange Commission for potential securities fraud. Other Musk enterprises, including the satellite internet provider Starlink and brain implant company Neuralink have separate contracts and regulatory issues before the federal government.
Federal employees are generally prohibited by law from acting on particular matters that affect their own financial interests. There are also federal conflict-of-interest statutes that apply to members of certain federal advisory committees.
In a recent interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked whether he considered Musk’s role as an adviser a conflict of interest, given the substantial government interests of companies he owns.
“I think that Elon puts the country long before his company,” Trump answered. “He considers this to be his most important project, and he wanted to do it.”
The Warren letter asks the Trump team 14 questions about the rules governing Musk, his associates and others involved in the Department of Government Efficiency project that Trump has asked Musk to lead. The questions concern what ethics rules Musk has agreed to and whether he has agreed to recuse himself from any matters.
“Moving forward, will he recuse himself from matters affecting Tesla, Space X, X, or any other company he owns or in which he has a substantial investment?” Warren asks at one point.
“Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country – or merely good for his own bottom line,” Warren wrote.