In a speech closing out Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest event, President-elect Donald Trump interrupted his post-election victory lap to address claims that Elon Musk is commandeering his presidency.
“He’s not gonna be president, that I can tell you,” Trump told a massive crowd in Phoenix, Arizona, on Dec. 22.
“He can’t be. He wasn’t born in this country.”
The Constitution specifies that only natural born citizens can serve as president. While Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is an American citizen, he was born in South Africa to non-American parents before moving to Canada and, eventually, the United States.
Talk of “President Musk” began among Democrats, who have been portraying the richest man in the world as a shadow leader in the wake of Trump’s November election victory.
That narrative gained steam during the continuing resolution battle, when Musk made numerous posts on his social media platform X, expressing opposition to the roughly 1,500-page funding bill that lawmakers initially advanced.
“Elon Musk ordered his puppet President-elect and House Republicans to break the bipartisan agreement reached to keep government open,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote on X on Dec. 19 after that deal collapsed.
Lawmakers eventually passed a massively slimmed down bill on Dec. 20, hours before a government shutdown would have commenced.
Republicans and conservative commentators such as Mark Levin have characterized the narrative as an attempt to drive a wedge between Trump and Musk.
In Phoenix, Trump appreciatively recalled how Musk stumped for him in a key battleground state, Pennsylvania, during the final weeks of the campaign.
He also offered a simple reason for working closely with Musk, a serial entrepreneur and the world’s wealthiest man, with a net worth approaching $430 billion.
“I like having smart people,” Trump said.
President-elect Donald Trump speaks alongside Elon Musk (C) and Senate members including (L-R) Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), and Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) before attending a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, on Nov. 19, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Pledges to Restore Old Names
The president-elect’s remarks were full of pledges, some familiar from the campaign trail, and others more novel.He vowed that the tallest mountain on the North American continent will again be named after President William McKinley, a turn-of-the-20th-century president who, like Trump, advocated for tariffs.
“We think he deserves it. I think he deserves it,” Trump said.
The Obama administration in 2015 changed its name to Denali, in line with a 1975 request to the interior secretary from Alaska’s then-governor, Jay Hammond.
The name “Denali” comes from the state’s indigenous Athabascan culture.
People gather for AmericaFest, hosted by Turning Point in Phoenix, AZ., on Dec. 22, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Trump explored the restoration of the mountain’s original name at the beginning of his presidency. He reportedly asked the state’s senators, Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), if they would support a reversal of the Obama administration’s name change. They urged against it.
“That was not very gracious to somebody that did a good job,” Trump said in Phoenix.
He also renewed his vow to restore the name of the military installation previously known as Fort Bragg, after the Confederate Army General Braxton Bragg, who also fought in the Mexican-American War.
Trump’s comments encompassed other military assets with names traceable to the Confederacy. The Naming Commission, created in March 2021, was developed to assemble those names and recommend they be changed.
“Woke has to stop, because along with everything else, it’s destroying our country,” the president-elect said.
Tom Homan speaks at AmericaFest, hosted by Turning Point in Phoenix, Ariz., on Dec. 22, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Trump’s speech at the end of AmericaFest was preceded by remarks from, among others, comedian Rob Schneider, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Tom Homan, a U.S. Border Patrol veteran that the incoming world leader has tapped as his border czar.
“Tren de Aragua, your days are numbered,” Homan said, referring to the Venezuelan transnational criminal organization. “My gang’s bigger than your gang!”
