Musk's turn as a Trump diplomat raises conflict of interest concerns

Elon Musk has been a constant companion to President-elect Donald Trump as Trump meets with foreign leaders — an ever-present personality at Mar-a-Lago since November, even accompanying Trump to Paris on his first foreign trip since winning the election.  

Musk’s proximity to the incoming president has given him invaluable access to heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron at the ceremonial reopening of Notre Dame and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in New York, referring to her as a “precious genius” and “even more beautiful on the inside than she is on the outside” in introductory remarks at a black-tie gathering. 

More notably, Musk joined Trump’s pivotal first call after the election with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Musk’s interactions with world leaders alongside Trump are raising questions about the tech leader’s potential influence on U.S. foreign policy over the next four years and the potential for conflicts of interest, Washington insiders say. Musk maintains extensive worldwide investments, especially in China, America’s most powerful adversary, and has openly supported far-right political movements around the world. 

“It’s on a level that is so foreign to me I can’t get my head around it,” a former national security official in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet said. “Being in these meetings alone or with Trump, who knows what ethics violations are taking place.” 

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump-Vance Transition, said “Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency. The transition team will ensure the Department of Government Efficiency and those involved with it are compliant with all legal guidelines related to conflicts of interest.” 

Musk holds over $15 billion in federal contracts — principally through his SpaceX rocket company that NASA has come to rely on for aspects of its rocket program. The Pentagon depends on Musk for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite services, which are critical for U.S. military operations around the world. 

Behind the scenes, he has interfaced with leaders that many consider U.S. adversaries like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Since 2014, Trump has traveled to China at least eight times where he had meetings with senior Chinese officials. In one meeting, he was even offered a Chinese green card by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, according to the Wall Street Journal. Musk met directly with Xi at an exclusive 2023 dinner in San Francisco when he visited the U.S. for a daylong summit in 2023.

Musk’s Tesla electric vehicles, which account for almost 50% of all EV sales in the U.S., are largely manufactured in China, where the company opened its Gigafactory Shanghai facility, one of Tesla’s largest factories. 

Asked about Musk’s influence on foreign policy, a former U.S. intelligence official told NBC News: “I’m more concerned about conflicts of interest. Under any other normal circumstance, that would not be permitted, but now we are in a different rule set when it’s Trump.” Especially troubling to some is Musk’s prospective role recommending ambitious cuts in federal jobs. The former intelligence official added, “When he’s one of the arbiters of government efficiency, and how many thousands of people he can fire, he has all these government conflicts.”       

Musk’s government contracts involve more than 17 U.S. government agencies. This week, The New York Times reported that the Pentagon is looking into whether Musk complied with disclosure rules for his top-secret security clearance requiring him to report meetings with foreign officials, citing unnamed sources.

“I think he has incredible conflicts,” the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, told NBC News, adding, “His association with the president-elect has already profited him as far as his personal assets are concerned.” 

When asked if he thinks Musk’s meetings with foreign leaders create problems because of his businesses in China and other countries, Cardin said, “I don’t want a transactional person who’s going into a country to see if he can make a deal.”  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when asked about Musk’s influence in shaping Trump’s foreign policy, told NBC News: “We have one president at a time. That president is President Biden.” 

Clearly eager to smooth over any friction in the transition, Blinken quickly added praise for his likely successor, veteran Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Republican Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, whom Trump has announced as incoming national security adviser.

“We’re in close communication with the incoming administration,” Blinken said, adding, “It’s perfectly natural on one level for them to have conversations, communications, and in some ways, it’s helpful to us, because we want to make sure that, as I said, we are handing over the baton in a way that the next administration can come in and be running at full speed.”  

He did not directly answer the question about Musk’s unofficial role. 

Musk has previously expressed an interest in affecting the trajectory of foreign affairs, which could further affect his dealings with world leaders. 

For months, Musk has clashed with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling Britain a “tyrannical police state,” endorsing calls for a new election and boosting a video from a jailed far-right activist. In August, Musk stoked tensions there by saying the country was on the verge of civil war following days of far-right violence.

Musk has supported far-right movements around the world, including in Italy and most recently in Germany, where on Friday he expressed support for the country’s AfD party, saying it could “save Germany.”

In the last several days, consternation and excitement around Musk’s potential influence under Trump reached a fever pitch after Musk initiated a movement that quickly torpedoed funding legislation supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

As some Republicans have celebrated Musk’s successful effort to intervene, suggesting he should be made speaker of the House, many critics have raised concerns that Musk could be acting as a sort of “shadow president” or “co-president” to Trump.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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