World's Richest Man Offers No Proof For Claims of Government Fraud

Addresses reporters for 30 minutes in Oval Office, next to Trump

Author

Matt Davis
February 12, 2025

Morning. Every day I read the top story in the morning’s paper edition of the New York Times so that you don’t have to, then digest it for you here. If you’re new here, welcome! Your friends can subscribe here for daily updates if you forward them the link. Let’s do this!

Today’s paper, which I read on the subway, taking our almost-four-year-old son to school this morning. He’s back at school, though, which is a blessing. The entire household has been sick since late last week and I’m grateful we’re all on the mend!

Today’s lead story by Maggie Haberman, Theodore Schliefer and Nolan Kanno-Youngs is about the extraordinary press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday, where Elon Musk…

“….said that he was providing maximum transparency in his government cost-cutting initiative, but offered no evidence for his sweeping climax that the federal bureaucracy had been corrupted by cheats and officials who had approved money for ‘fraudsters’.”

The story is well reported, contrasting Musk’s statements with the truth. For example, he said “all of our actions are maximally transparent.” But…

“In reality, Mr. Musk’s team is operating in deep secrecy: surprising federal employees by descending upon agencies and gaining access to sensitive data systems. Mr. Musk himself is a ‘special government employee,’ which, the White House has said, means his financial disclosure filing will not be made public.”

The appearance “came amid mounting criticism that he was operating with unchecked power and no accountability — questions that have been dogging the president when he speaks to reporters.”

Musk repeatedly “rebuffed suggestions that he was operating without oversight.”

A particularly striking detail of the press conference is that Musk appeared with his 4-year-old son, X, who stood between the two men when he was not hoisted on Musk’s shoulders or sitting on the floor:

As a piece of strategic communication, it’s clever, because it softens Musk, who certainly needs some softening in the eyes of the voting public, having recently performed two Nazi salutes on inauguration day. The child’s mother has expressed dismay about the boy’s inclusion, but we all love kids.

Some commentators have said the conference ‘humiliated’ Trump because Musk stood over him, “delivering a picture of presidential subservience the likes of which we have never seen—the most powerless image of a president of the United States ever created by a camera.”

My feeling is that it represents smart damage control by the White House. Trump’s instinct is that Musk can defend himself well on camera, and that by sitting apparently comfortably while Musk does so, Trump appears not to be threatened by the multi-billionaire’s antics.

Musk also did concede to making mistakes. From the Times story:

Mr. Musk, whose approach to cost-cutting at his own companies has been to reinstate spending if the cuts go too deep, said that mistakes might be made as he slashes the size of federal agencies. Should he make cuts that are gratuitous, the billionaire said, they would simply be reversed.

“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. Nobody’s going to bat 1.000,” Mr. Musk said. “We all make mistakes. But we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”

That’s smart messaging. Overall, it was not a disaster at a time when many have been predicting disaster between Musk and Trump for weeks.

Obviously the so-called press conference was, in many ways, appalling. But on the basis that politics appeals to people in the middle, I can say that Musk did a better than usual job of seeming reasonable and not insane to such people yesterday. What do you think?

Was Elon Musk's Tuesday press appearance a success?

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I’ll report the results tomorrow.

You’re welcome!

Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.