Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told CBS News on Sunday that he spoke to the tech billionaire multiple times during negotiations for the funding package.

To be clear, he meant it as a compliment.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Gonzales said during an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “We have a president, we have a vice president, we have a speaker. It feels like as if Elon Musk is our prime minister.”

Gonzales continued to praise Musk’s influence on the funding process, even as moderator Margaret Brennan pointed out that Musk has not been elected to any formal position in the U.S. government.

“Well, unelected, but, I mean, he has a voice, and I think a lot of —large part of that voice is a reflection of the voice of the people,” Gonzales said.

Also, tell me you don’t know what a prime minister is without telling me you don’t know what a prime minister is.

  • jmcs
    6·
    11 hours ago

    Not necessarily. In semi-presidential republics, the prime minister is nominated by the president in agreement with the parliament. In normal circumstances this is functionally equivalent to having the prime minister be elected in the parliament but there are cases like Russia and France where the relationship between the president and the prime minister is similar to the dynamic between Trump and Musk.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      4·
      6 hours ago

      Of course, for that you need a parliament.

      Which the U.S. doesn’t have.

      It could just be that Gonzales is very stupid.

      • jmcs
        1·
        6 hours ago

        You need a legislature which the US has. And you need the institutions centered around having a head of government that’s not the head of state, which the US doesn’t. Gonzalez is an idiot that doesn’t understand the US constitution but that’s implied by his party membership.