Political Reporter Says Elon Musk Is ‘Playing A Risky Game’ With Trump
Huff PostLOADING ERROR LOADING Wall Street Journal reporter Vivian Salama said Elon Musk is “definitely playing a risky game” by getting ahead of Donald Trump to tank a government funding bill. Democrats and other critics started calling Musk Trump’s “shadow president” on Wednesday after the billionaire Tesla CEO railed repeatedly against the bill in a social media spree, before the president-elect ultimately weighed in, likely delivering a fatal blow to the bipartisan deal negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson. “It’s incredibly risky,” Salama, a national politics reporter who covered the White House during Trump’s first administration, said of Musk’s maneuvering on CNN’s “OutFront” on Wednesday. “Advisers told us that they did kind of receive Trump’s blessing, that they were on the same page, but they really couldn’t give much more of an explanation as to why Elon Musk was just kind of going full-throated, you know, rejection of the bill so early on, without us hearing from Trump,” she said.