Tesla (TSLA) CEO and billionaire Elon Musk has emerged as an influential figure in President-elect Donald Trump's second term in the White House, with some even calling the tech mogul the unelected president.
Brown University professor of political science Wendy Schiller joins Madison Mills on Catalysts to explain the dynamics between Trump and Musk she'll be watching during Trump's second term in office.
Schiller explains that Musk's and Trump's patience will be crucial for the success of their partnership. Trump's test of patience could come about "with the amount of publicity that Musk is getting," whereas for Musk, "the vast morass that is the federal government" could prove difficult for him to manage. "The federal government is big and thick and hard to cut," Schiller adds.
Trump nominated Musk as a co-leader, alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, of the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "The key thing here is that DOGE ... has not been created or authorized by Congress [and] it has no legal authority," Schiller says. "Anything that [Musk] proposes in terms of cutting the government budget has to come, most likely, through [an] executive order from the president."
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This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.