Elon Musk walks through the Capitol Building on the day of his meeting with incoming Senate Republican Leader John Thune (R-SD) on December 5, 2024 in Washington, United States.
Benoît Tessier | Reuters
Representatives Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Democrats in Congress, bow to Elon Musk’s demands and pass a bipartisan government funding bill that would restrict U.S. investment in China. He said he rejected it.
Congress passed another stopgap funding bill over the weekend, averting a government shutdown.
In a series of posts about X, McGovern said more could have been accomplished. Repealing the provision “would have made it easier to keep cutting-edge AI and quantum computing technologies and jobs in the United States,” he wrote. “But Elon had a problem.”
teslaMusk’s company is the only foreign automaker operating factories in China without a local joint venture. Tesla is also building a battery factory this year right next to its Shanghai auto factory, with the aim of developing and selling self-driving car technology in China.
“His bottom line depends on continuing to benefit from China,” McGovern wrote of Musk. “He wants to build an AI data center there as well, which could jeopardize U.S. security. He’s bending over backwards to curry favor with the Chinese leadership.”
Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor SpaceX reportedly withheld Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan at the request of the leaders of China and Russia. Taiwan is an autonomous democratic state that the Chinese government claims as its own territory. Taiwan’s status is one of the biggest flashpoints in US-China relations.
DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a letter to Congress on Friday that Musk needs “the Chinese government’s approval for his domestic projects.” Musk’s “incorporation into the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party” is alarming, she wrote.
In his letter, DeLauro referred to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk as “President” and said the world’s richest person was last known Wednesday, before President-elect Donald Trump issued a statement. alluded to the fact that he began slamming the funding bill. own.
President Trump had hoped Republicans would scrap the bill and issue a new bill that would raise the debt ceiling, allowing him to avoid that fight at the start of his second term. The emergency funding bill signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday did not include the two-year suspension of the U.S. debt ceiling that President Trump had sought.
Musk responded to DeLauro’s concerns by calling her a “terrible creature” in a post on X.
After buying Twitter in 2022, Musk renamed it to X and used it to return Trump to the White House, becoming the president-elect’s top aide and key supporter along the way.
Musk donated $277 million to the Trump campaign and other Republican causes during the 2024 cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Since the November election, Mr. Musk has become a nearly constant presence by Mr. Trump’s side, including in meetings with foreign leaders.
President Trump has appointed Musk to co-lead the yet-to-be-formed group, which will be tasked with finding ways to cut regulations, personnel and budgets.
Spotlight: Masks’ influence on government
