The White House has said that Elon Musk’s recent deals, including his takeover of Twitter and operations of Starlink internet in Ukraine, are not under national security review. And while that would seem like a denial of the original reports from last week by Bloomberg News about the deals, there’s seemingly still some wiggle room in what was said by President Joe Biden’s press secretary on Monday.
Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that members of the Biden administration were “discussing whether the U.S. should subject some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national security reviews.” The report didn’t say that a security review was happening, just that there had been discussions. But the White House insists that the report is wrong.
The question from a reporter on Monday, according to the press conference that was livestreamed on YouTube:
There have been some slightly conflicting reports about Elon Musk, because on one side there’s been a report that he might be subjected to some kind of national security review. There’s been these… he’s been kind of trolling on Twitter, communicating with Medvedev on Twitter. So there’s been a little bit of confusion about what his role is there. And on the other side, there’s been reports that he’s in discussions or the government is in discussions with him about providing Starlink to Iran, or to the people protesting in Iran. So could you give an overview of like — what’s the administration’s dealings with Elon Musk, who’s obviously not somebody — you know, he’s an important person.
The response from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:
No, I… I know there’s a lot of interest in this. We’ve heard those reportings. Those reportings are not true. So we’ll leave that there. The national security review, that is not true. And I really don’t have more to say on that piece, as well… on the Elon Musk and what he’s choosing to do and not to do. I’m not going to say more from here.
You’ll notice that Jean-Pierre’s answer seems to suggest the White House is denying that a national security review has been instigated. But Jean-Pierre’s reluctance to elaborate any further seems like there could be the possibility that other members of the Biden administration were considering the possibility of a national security review.
Musk’s financing for the $US44 ($61) billion Twitter deal reportedly includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, two forces that could arguably exert pressure on the billionaire against content they dislike.
Musk, who also relies on the Chinese Communist Party’s largesse to operate his Tesla factory in Shanghai, has previously said he’d like all legal speech to be permitted on Twitter once he takes over. Musk is also likely to reinstate people who’ve previously been banned from the social media platform, including former president Donald Trump, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke.
With Musk expected to also cut Twitter staff by 75%, the social media company should become quite the cesspool soon. But only time will tell.