Elon Musk joined his co-President in the Oval Office – along with his toddler son – and held court, definitely not making Trump look like the junior partner in their relationship
Donald Trump got a decent photo-op last night – an American prisoner freed from Russia that he could parade around the White House.
But he refused to say what deal he’d cut with Vladimir Putin in order to secure the release.
Earlier, Elon Musk joined his co-President in the Oval Office – along with his toddler son – and held court, definitely not making Trump look like the junior partner in their relationship.
Here’s all the things Donald Trump and Elon Musk did yesterday that you need to know.
1. Paraded an American freed from a Russian prison round the White House – but wouldn’t say what he gave Putin in return
Russia released Mark Fogel, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania who was arrested for possession of medical cannabis, from prison last night.
He arrived at Andrews Air Force Base before being choppered to meet Trump at the White House, where he was paraded around the Oval Office in front of the cameras.
Funny thing though, Trump was a bit cagey about the deal he did with Putin to get Fogel out – only saying it was “very fair, very reasonable.”
Trump also teased that “somebody else is being released tomorrow that you will know of.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin confirmed the US was preparing to release a Russian national being held in the US – but wouldn’t say who until they were back in Moscow.
2. Held a wild press conference in the Oval Office
Trump signed an executive order demanding government departments cooperate with Elon Musk’s DOGE bully squad.
And to mark the moment, Musk – and his toddler son X – held court in the Oval.
Musk wore his trademark goth MAGA hat as he stood next to the Resolute Desk – definitely not making Trump look like the junior partner in a joint Presidency.
3. Musk admitted he says things that aren’t true
A reporter challenged Musk about his wildly stupid claim – issued on day one of his putsch by way of justification – that the US spends $50 million sending condoms to Gaza.
Of course, the US wasn’t doing that. Either Musk or Trump or someone at DOGE got confused because the actual destination of reproductive aid was Gaza, Mozambique – around 6,000km from the Middle East.
The funding went towards global efforts to tackle AIDS in Africa – where 25.6 million people are living with HIV, and 380,000 died from AIDS related illnesses in 2022.
So it definitely, definitely wasn’t – as the President claimed Musk had told him – being used to fund condoms for Hamas, who were blowing the condoms up, tying them to bombs and floating them over Israel.
I wish I was making this up.
While Musk didn’t directly admit this claim was untrue, he did say: “Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected. Nobody can bat 1,000.”
He added: “We all make mistakes. But we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
As yet, they have not actually corrected the condom thing.
4. Claimed Musk doesn’t have a conflict of interest with the Pentagon, which he definitely does
Musk was asked whether investigating the Pentagon, which has many massive contracts with his company SpaceX, presented a conflict of interests.
He said no…without really explaining why.
“First of all, I’m not the one filing the contract. It’s the people at SpaceX or something,” he said. And that was that.
5. But it’s all fine, because Musk tweets a lot
Asked if he was effectively “policing himself”, Musk didn’t really deny it.
Standing with his fingers bridged like a Bond villain, he said: “We’re trying to be as transparent as possible. In fact, we publish our actions on the DOGE handle on [ Twitter ] and to the Doge website. So all of our actions are maximally transparent.”
“I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the Doge organization.”
In reality, Musk and his goon squad’s actual day to day activities are almost entirely opaque. He’s got a made-up job title, which means his financial disclosures aren’t made public. The number of staff he has are kept secret, and he’s tried to keep their identities under wraps – claiming people who reported them online were breaking the law.
6. Got slapped down by the King of Jordan
Though slightly blinky throughout their joint appearance in the Oval Office, King Abdullah of Jordan was all smiles and “wait and see” as Trump banged on about his mad plan to turn Gaza in to Vegas on Sea.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of US control in Gaza. He suggested that the redeveloped area could have new hotels, office buildings and houses, “and we’ll make it exciting.”
“I can tell you about real estate. They’re going to be in love with it,” he added.
Asked under what authority Trump thought the US could unilaterally seize control of a sovereign state, he said: “Under US authority.”
But after the meeting, King Abdullah said: “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
“This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” Abdullah added.
Ouch.
