US Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked Donald Trump's transition team to hold Elon Musk to the same ethics standards as other transition members, putting oversight of the unusually powerful presidential adviser in the spotlight.
"Mr. Musk’s substantial private interests present a massive conflict of interest with the role he has taken on as your ‘unofficial co-president,'" Warren said in a letter to the Trump transition team made public by her office on Tuesday. "Currently, the American public has no way of knowing whether the advice that he is whispering to you in secret is good for the country - or merely good for his own bottom line."
Musk's role as the co-chair of a newly created Trump advisory body that is not part of the US government, the "Department of Government Efficiency," means that he is not a government employee, Warren noted, "but the conflicts he faces are enormous and the need for him to be subject to similar ethics standards is obvious."
The Trump transition team had no immediate comment.