Reuters / New York Post (Trump and Musk at a medal presentation; archive; crop).
President Donald Trump said he would protect Elon Musk if Democrats pursued the Tesla and SpaceX chief after the midterm elections, according to a New York Post report published Monday on his interview with Miranda Devine for the “Pod Force One” podcast.
Asked about the prospect of Musk being arrested, Trump dismissed the threat before giving a conditional pledge of support. “It won’t happen. It’s talk,” he said. “But if it is talk, we’ll have to protect them.”
The comments put Musk and the businesses he leads back at the center of the political debate before Tuesday’s congressional elections. The Post reported them at 6 a.m. Eastern on November 2; they were not an announcement of a new protection order or an issued pardon.
The interview touched on calls to target people who worked with the administration, as well as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s push for Democrats to lay the groundwork for nationalizing SpaceX. The report did not describe a completed move to seize the company or its assets.
Trump also said he would consider preemptive pardons for people who worked in his administration if Democrats followed through on threats to prosecute them. “I would if I needed to. Sure,” he told Devine. Asked whether that extended to everyone who had worked for him, he said, “I’d do it.”
The Musk answer did not specify a legal mechanism to protect Tesla or SpaceX, and Trump did not announce a pardon for Musk. His broader remarks about pardons were conditional, rather than a grant of immunity to his allies.
The Post noted that presidential pardons cover federal crimes, not state prosecutions, civil suits or impeachment. That distinction limits what a pardon could accomplish even if Trump chose to issue one.
Trump said the election results would soon settle the immediate political question. “We’ll know on Tuesday night,” he said.
JBizNews Desk | Washington
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