CBS news reported on Wednesday Elon Musk’s pseudo-proposal to pay TSA workers affected by the ongoing partial government shutdown has been rejected by the Trump Administration.
I say “pseudo offer” because, as I already mentionedhe said he “wanted to offer” to pay the wages, a tortured expression, perhaps, maybeinterpreted as a signal that the “offer” may not be real.
Nevertheless, here are some headlines related to Elon Musk’s announcement:
- Fox Business: “Elon Musk offers to pay TSA workers’ salaries amid DHS budget standoff”
- Reuters: “Elon Musk offers to pay TSA salaries amid budget battle, airport row”
- Business Insider: “Elon Musk offers to pay TSA agents’ salaries as Trump replaces them with ICE”
The President of the United States even publicly responded to the concept that Musk revealed. saying “I’d love that. I think it’s great.”
And apparently there was some internal discussion in the Trump White House about donating money to Musk common stockCBS reported on this.
According to a 2016 explanation from the Niskanen Center, you can give money to the government A strange side door created in 1843 By John Spencer, Secretary of the Treasury. It is available to “persons who wish to express their patriotism to the United States” and was able to take in $47 million between 1996 and 2016.
However, CBS writes, “According to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, it is legally prohibited for an outsider to pay government employees directly.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CBS a slightly different story, saying that people in the Trump Administration “really appreciate Elon’s generous offer,” but added that unfortunately it creates “legal challenges because of its involvement in federal government contracts.”
To refresh your memory, Elon Musk’s “affiliation with federal government contracts” can mean many things. His companies planned to receive $38 billion in government funding in 2020-2025. According to the Washington Post. But it should also be noted that Musk worked in the government department last year canceled billions of dollars worth of contracts– a different type of “participation”.
Anyway, when I write about it three days agoI’ve noticed that when Elon Musk hints at some dramatic act of generosity, little, if anything, tends to actually materialize.
He has access to lawyers and knows the president personally. It wouldn’t make sense for the world’s richest man to ask knowledgeable people to study this plan in private, evaluate its practicality, and then only post about it on social media when the green light is given, preferably after the wheels are in motion.
