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.

  • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    13 hours ago

    Except a prime minister is typically not only elected by their constituents, but also elected by their party to be prime minister, right? So not at all then.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      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
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        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@discuss.tchncs.de
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          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.

  • P_P@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    If Elon keeps this up, someone is going to be his Luigi.

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    16 hours ago

    “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.

    Yeah, generally the richest person alive is super in touch with what poor people are thinking. That makes total sense.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      13 hours ago

      When a Republican listens for the “voice of the people”, all they hear is their own voice. Everything is projection and they lack the ability to imagine other people’s lives, so they assume what they want is what the people want.

    • blarth@thelemmy.club
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      11 hours ago

      I watched this segment. As is typical, Republicans know shit is insane, but they still have to make sure to slob the orange knob to ensure they don’t get labeled as the anti-whatever during primaries.

  • TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com
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    16 hours ago

    Why are Republicans’ feelings so important while everyone else’s feelings are so unimportant to Republicans ?