Maggie Haberman Confronts Trump Spox Over Elon Musk In Briefing Room Debut

New York Times White House correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman confronted Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt over DOGE czar Elon Musk, asking if President Donald Trump has complied with a conflict of interest law.

Haberman’s reporting has been immensely influential by virtue of her deep experience reporting on Trump and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights. But after his election to a second term, as her NYT bio states, “Now I am covering his second, nonconsecutive term as president after his election win.”

During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Haberman made her 2nd term debut in the briefing room by challenging Leavitt on her claims of “transparency” regarding Musk’s conflicts of interest — which came up during a strange Oval Office event.

Haberman asked if Trump granted some sort of “waiver” for conflict of interest laws:

KAROLINE LEAVITT: Maggie, good to see you.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: Thanks for taking the question.

You talked about the transparency with DOGE and Elon Musk’s press availability yesterday.

There is a conflict of interest law in place that says that people who have personal interests can’t interact with government entities that can touch on those.

Has President Trump signed a waiver for Elon Musk? Does such a thing exist? If it does, will you guys release it in the interest of transparency that he’s committed to?

KAROLINE LEAVITT: I have not seen the law that you are referring to. What I can tell you is that Elon Musk, as I’ve confirmed before, is a special government employee.

He is filing the proper financial disclosure and he is complying with all applicable federal laws.

As you also heard, Elon addressed this directly yesterday and the alleged conflict of interest. And he said everything he’s doing is very public. And if you all perceive a conflict of interest, you’re welcome to bring that up.

And as the president said, if he feels like Elon is engaging in something that’s a conflict of interest, he will tell Elon not to do that.

Elon also said yesterday that before he moves forward with anything, he consults with the president of the United States.

So we’re very confident with the ethics and the guardrails that have been put in place here.

Watch above via The White House.