Donald Trump’s team has threatened to weaponize Elon Musk against any Republican senators who plan to block the confirmation of his cabinet picks, according to a report.
One of the president-elect’s senior advisers warned senators that if they vote against his nominees, they could be forced to face primary challenges funded by Musk, ABC reported.
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“If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary,” a senior adviser told ABC’s chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl.
“That is all,” the adviser said. “And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.”
“The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else,” the adviser added.
Musk was instrumental in bankrolling Trump’s presidential campaign and has been weighing in on the president-elect’s cabinet choices.
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The billionaire and Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped to head up the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency to gut federal agencies and cut funding.
The warning comes after Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, was forced to withdraw from consideration on Thursday following enormous backlash.
His future job as America’s top law enforcement official came to a crashing end with a phone call from Trump landing the final nail in the coffin.
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The announcement that he was dropping out came as allegations of misconduct involving a 17-year-old girl and illicit drug use resurfaced and fueled doubts that he would pass the Senate nomination process. Gaetz denies all the accusations.
CNN reported that, just an hour before announcing he was stepping aside, the publication had asked Gaetz for comment about new allegations that he had had multiple sexual encounters with the underage girl.
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But, according to a report, the decision to step aside came during a call between Gaetz and Trump himself.
A source told The Bulwark that the president-elect called Gaetz just hours before his withdrawal, warning him that he didn’t have enough support in the Senate.
“You don’t have the votes,” Trump told Gaetz, according to the source. “These senators aren’t moving.”
According to a second source, the former Florida lawmaker is said to have acknowledged that he was four to six Republican votes shy from the threshold needed.
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Trump could now have a fight on his hands to confirm Fox News host Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary.
Hegseth’s nomination is in jeopardy following an allegation of assault from 2017, which he denies. The allegation was reported to have taken Trump’s transition team by surprise when it emerged last week.
A newly-released police report revealed previously unreported details about the alleged assault which took place after a Republican women’s conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Monterey, California, on October 8, 2017.
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The woman at the center of the allegation told police that Hegseth physically blocked the door to stop her from leaving his hotel room and took her phone away, before assaulting her, according to the report, seen by The Independent.
The woman, referred to throughout the 22-page report as Jane Doe, also told police she remembered saying “‘no’ a lot” to Hegseth.
Hegseth has maintained that the encounter was consensual and, in the police report, he stated “there was ‘always’ conversation and ‘always’ consensual contact” between the two of them.
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His lawyer said Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 to head off the threat of a baseless lawsuit. No charges were brought against Hegseth.
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