Ari Melber is taking Elon Musk to job for what the lawyer and journalist calls a big battle of curiosity.
Melber argued Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that Musk is utilizing his entry to President Donald Trump “to line his own pockets,” as the brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity that Musk is heading is curiously nicknamed DOGE — after a cryptocurrency Musk owns.
Melber advised that that is “no different than trying to rename a government department after Coke or Tesla” if one had a monetary stake in both, and famous that even the taxpayer-funded web site for DOGE “promotes the same crypto coin” that Musk has lengthy promoted.
“So Day 1, Donald Trump’s chosen adviser, Elon Musk, is taking your taxpayer dollars and promoting his crypto business, stuff that he owns,” Melber stated. “He owns some of that. And the product … has nothing to do with cutting government spending or anything related.”
“He’s not even pretending,” the MSNBC host continued Tuesday. “It’s just a blatant grift.”
The brand new division has said goals of reducing pointless authorities spending, which might make Musk’s alleged grift of utilizing taxpayer {dollars} to advertise Dogecoin all of the extra suspicious — as he has personally been an enormous supporter of the cryptocurrency through the years.
The division’s authorities web site is nearly completely clean, save for its obvious new brand — whose gold-encircled greenback signal bears a little bit of a resemblance to Dogecoin, which was launched in 2013 as an admitted joke primarily based on an web meme.
Kevin Lamarque/Pool Picture/Related Press
Trump formally fashioned the division by way of an government order Monday, instantly earlier than his administration was sued by the American Federation of Authorities Workers union and watchdog teams Public Citizen and the State Democracy Defenders Fund.
The swimsuit accuses DOGE of violating 1972’s Federal Advisory Committee Act, which goals to make sure public transparency concerning the choices authorities advisory teams are making behind closed doorways. It additional accused Musk of getting evident conflicts of curiosity.
His SpaceX firm has reportedly obtained billions of {dollars} in federal contracts, in spite of everything, prompting concern that Musk will merely use DOGE to advocate insurance policies that can profit him financially — on the taxpayer’s expense.
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