Trump Says Musk ‘Really Can’t’ Serve in His Cabinet After Saying He Would Consider It

A week after saying he would “sure” Consider giving Elon Musk a Cabinet role in a possible second administration—and get one right away commit by Musk to serve—Donald Trump seems to be reconsidering the wisdom of that idea.

Speaking to a former Navy SEAL about this prospect, the former president speakReferring to the Tesla owner: “He wants to get in. Now look, he’s running big businesses and all that, so he can’t really—I don’t think he would [free for] Cabinet.” Trump added that while he would “certainly” nominate Musk for such a role—which would require Senate approval—he didn’t “know how he could do it with all the resources he has.” Trump went on to say that he would support Musk being an adviser.

As Daily Beast noteThe real reason Musk probably wouldn’t have a Cabinet position in a second Trump term is because he would face countless conflicts of interest, and as CNN reported last week, it wouldn’t be as simple as selling his shares in his company or putting his shares into a blind trust, because “Musk, Tesla’s CEO and largest shareholder, can’t just sell his shares without causing the stock price to collapse. And given the breadth of his business interests, it’s hard to see where he could serve without having to constantly say no.”

“It depends a lot on what the job is and how it relates to his economic interests,” Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, told the news agency. “There is something will not related to his economic interests? I’m not sure what that would be.”

In other Trump-Musk news, Rolling Stone report that while Trump may lavish praise on the world’s richest man in public, such comments may not reflect the whole story:

According to a person close to the twice-impeached convicted criminal, Trump “thinks [Musk’s] strange. Sorry to use a word that Democrats use a lot these days.” The source spoke with the former president about Musk as recently as July. Another source, who has been in the room multiple times over the years when Trump has spoken privately about Musk, relayed to Rolling Stone that on several occasions, most recently in the past few months, Trump has said Musk is “boring,” annoying and prone to mood swings.

Sources note that while Trump has clearly said some nice things about Musk in private, he has occasionally offered more blunt assessments. Indeed, even in public, Trump’s true feelings have a way of sometimes coming out. The former president recently described Musk as “a very different kind of person,” which sources close to Trump described as not a compliment.

In a statement, a Trump campaign spokesman said Rolling Stone that the former president and Musk “agree on the big issues facing our country, and that Kamala Harris must be stopped before she completely destroys America.” Musk currently heads a pro-Trump super PAC, which has so far spent $37 million for his re-election effort.