‘Most Powerless Image of a President’ Ever: Lawrence O’Donnell Flames Trump’s ‘Subservience’ to Elon Musk in Oval Office
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell gloated in Elon Musk’s “power play” Oval Office presser that he said “humiliated” President Donald Trump after the administration’s cost-cutting bulldog turned up “underdressed” and took centre stage with his kid.
During the impromptu Oval Office press spray on Tuesday, Musk stood beside Trump’s desk and became the focus of media questions about the aggressive actions of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), amid mounting questions about the legality and transparency of their methods.
As the billionaire railed against what he termed “the bureaucracy,” which he claimed poses a direct threat to democracy, however, O’Donnell concerned himself with Musk’s optics as he broke “norms” to signal, the host argued, that Trump was “powerless.”
The person who is helping [Trump cut federal departments down] stood over Donald Trump in the White House today, thereby delivering a picture of presidential subservience the likes of which we have never seen. The most powerless image of a president of the United States ever created by a camera.
As that image was shown on screen, the host continued:
There it is. In that shot, Elon Musk is doing everything he possibly can to tell the world, without saying a word, that Donald Trump is not the boss of me. Donald Trump is the boss of the other adults in that shot, Stephen Miller and Will Scharf. And that’s why they are following Donald Trump’s lead on the dress code for the Oval Office, which is the same dress code that has existed for every previous president.
Pivoting to break down Musk’s appearance and approach to the event, he added:
Elon Musk owns suits and ties. We’ve seen him wearing them. But today he decided to do the billionaire thing… the billionaire power move [is] being underdressed, violating the dress code and knowing that you can do it because clothes don’t make the man, money makes the man. And today Elon Musk decided that he wanted to outdo all of his fellow tech billionaires who frequently show up in t-shirts. And so he violated another norm of business meetings at the white house and business meetings in a lot of places.
O’Donnell then rounded on Musk having brought his child, X, along to the briefing as further proof that Trump was not in control.
By bringing one of his 11 children, it was like bringing a dog to the home of a person who hates dogs. And we all know how much Donald Trump hates dogs. His favorite line in publicly announcing the firings of people that he hired in the first Trump White House was: ‘I fired him like a dog.’ I don’t know what that means. Dogs don’t get fired. It can only mean that he hates dogs.
The host continued to mockingly point out that “Trump had no trouble remembering the name of Elon Musk’s child.” Demanding producers keep the clip on screen in full, so that viewers could appreciate what had happened, O’Donnell continued:
The child was there as a power play by Elon Musk demonstrating he can do whatever he wants in that room. When Donald Trump is your boss, you don’t bring your kid into a business meeting with Donald Trump. And when Donald Trump is your boss, you don’t talk more than Donald Trump. In a business meeting with Donald Trump, Elon Musk spoke 3666 words. Donald Trump spoke 2487 words.
[Former Vice President] Mike Pence never had a day like that in the Oval Office with Donald Trump. [Vice President] JD Vance will never have a day like that in the Oval Office with Donald Trump, because Donald Trump is the boss of JD Vance…
When the president speaks in the oval office, no one else does. Except today, Elon Musk interrupted Donald Trump when Donald Trump was speaking, and Elon Musk’s four year old child spoke while Donald Trump was speaking, and nothing could demonstrate the power of Elon Musk more than his child speaking while Donald Trump was speaking.
Pointing to one incident, O’Donnell pointed to one incident when Trump turned away from Musk’s child and attempted to silence the boy as he spoke while his father answered questions.
What would Joe Biden have done? What would Barack Obama have done? What would George W Bush have done? What would Bill Clinton have done? What would any president you’ve seen in that chair have done? Donald Trump turns away from the four year old and then when the four year old continues to speak, Donald Trump reaches out to try to silence him and he fails.
Watch above via MSNBC.
