Original article behind a paywall.
Retired Lt. General Russel L. Honoré is sounding the alarm on Elon Musk’s potential security risk in his newfound role as close advisor to President-elect Donald Trump.
Honoré took to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to explain in significant detail why he believes the leader of DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) and holder of multiple federal contracts with the United States industrial space and military complex may be beholden to China over massive loans he received from the foreign government in years past. He opens by citing past comments from his DOGE deputy, Vivek Ramaswamy. Honoré writes:
In May 2023, Mr. Ramaswamy went so far as to publicly state, “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need,” a reference to China’s leader. In a separate X post targeting Mr. Musk, he wrote, “the U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket.”
Mr. Ramaswamy has since walked back his numerous public criticisms of Mr. Musk, but he was right to raise concerns. According to news reports, Mr. Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, face federal reviews from the Air Force, the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General and the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security for failing to provide details of Mr. Musk’s meetings with foreign leaders and other potential violations of national-security rules.
These alleged infractions are just the beginning of my worries. Mr. Musk’s business ventures are heavily reliant on China. He borrowed at least $1.4 billion from banks controlled by the Chinese government to help build Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, which was responsible for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter of 2024.
China does not tend to give things away. The country’s laws stipulate that the Communist Party can demand intelligence from any company doing business in China, in exchange for participating in the country’s markets.
The Musk-China concerns might just represent the beginning. In a November letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Pentagon’s inspector general, two Democratic senators asked that they investigate Mr. Musk’s “reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder” because of his reported conversations with Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials. In a separate letter, the senators asked the Air Force secretary, Frank Kendall, to reconsider SpaceX’s “outsized role” in America’s commercial space integration. Mr. Kendall wrote back stating that, while he was legally prohibited from discussing Mr. Musk’s case, he shared their concerns.
For conservatives, “national security” is one those nonsense terms. They don’t have a clue as to what it is, so it must be nonsense.
So like, how about these big tough military guys stop hand-wringing and do something about it. Fulfill your oath and defend the fucking constitution.
And do what exactly? Having militaries intervene on political processes doesn’t have the best history of turning out well.
Depends on the motivation, honestly. The military revolution in Chiapas worked well. Same with the one in Cuba, Vietnam, and a number of other places.
Donald Trump and every single prospective member of his Cabinet are a National Security Risk, every fucking one. Americans have been well aware of this since the last time Trump was President, and a Million Americans died from a purposefully inept Federal Global Viral Pandemic response. The majority of Americans obviously couldn’t give a shit as evidenced by their either voting for Trump in November, or simply staying home and deciding not to cast a vote. It is the end of all things. We are doomed. This is not hyperbole.
They did give a shit. The majority did. Elon cracked the election. He was in every flip state right before the count showed up. Every flip state that was hit with a gorram bomb threat right before he showed up to crack the system.
But, but, but he’s going to make the right people suffer.
So, I guess we should do what’s necessary to protect ourselves…
Inevitable. Unless the military actually defends the US and stops this shit fan.
Soldiers are bitches
Getting paid like a black shirt is actually more such.
Ramaswamy Once Called DOGE Partner Elon Musk a ‘Circus Monkey’ for China – (Archived)
According to recordings and social media posts […], Ramswamy once described Musk […] as a puppet of the Chinese government.
“I think Tesla is increasingly beholden to China,” Ramaswamy said in 2023. “I have no reason to think Elon won’t jump like a circus monkey when Xi Jinping calls in the hour of need.”
In another 2022 interview, the businessman-turned-Republican politician said that “Elon Musk has, I think, demonstrated his willingness to change his political tunes based on the favors that he gets to be able to do business in China.”
That same year Ramaswamy bashed Musk after the Tesla owner suggested that Taiwan should become a “special administrative zone” of the Chinese government. Ramaswamy criticized the comment, telling the UnHerd podcast that Musk “got a nice ‘attaboy’ […] a little pat on the back when his Shanghai factory and regulator in China gave him a nice little tax break within days after him having made that comment about Taiwan.”
In that same interview, Ramaswamy said that Musk — and Apple CEO Tim Cook — were beholden to the “same master”: The Chinese Communist Party.
[…]
So… Trump is a security risk, and yet…
This is literally nothing less than U.S. Military vs the Not-Elected-Via-Musk-Cracker-Trump
Stop this jackass or else. U.S. Anything service.
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