Vice President J.D. Vance dispelled the fake news that there's a rift between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, telling Newsmax on Thursday that their relationship is "better than fine" and that the president has "full faith" in his senior adviser.
Vance joined "Rob Schmitt Tonight" to address a story from earlier this week that Musk was going to be pulled off as head of the Department of Government Efficiency at the behest of Trump. The White House called the story "garbage" and Vance reinforced that it is.
"The real deal is the president has full faith in Elon. Elon is a great attribute and he's a great asset to the team. But Elon came in as a special government employee, right?" Vance said. "What we recognize is we were never going to get Elon for four years. That's just not the bargain. He's got businesses to run. He wants to focus on this problem, fix it, and help us.
"But we do have to make it longstanding. ... We've got to make sure that bureaucrats don't run the government, that the people's elected president runs the government. So there's a lot that Elon has done, but we've got to make sure that the great progress that he's made lasts long into the future. And we think it will."
As for the Trump-Musk relationship itself, Vance said, "It's better than fine."
"The president relies on Elon's counsel. I do," Vance said. "Look, the fake news always tries to take the strongest members of the president's team and attack them and tear them down. Things couldn't be better. ... And I think that where it's coming from is the media is so resentful of the fact that we're doing a good job.
"They know they can't attack the president. So they're going to attack members of the president's team. ... Unfortunately for them, we don't listen to it."
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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