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00:00Let's get more analysis of the situation and bring in Larry Sabato, joining us from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
00:05Larry, always a pleasure to have you on France 24.
00:08Can we talk about the appointments that have been made so far, in particular that appointment of Elon Musk to the Department of Government Efficiency?
00:18What's your take on that?
00:20Well, my take on it is that Elon Musk gave somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million to Donald Trump's campaign,
00:30both directly to his campaign and indirectly through other PACs and activities.
00:35So, you'd better believe that he has the run of Mar-a-Lago, just as he'll have the run of the White House.
00:41Now, he's been appointed to the Department of Government Efficiency.
00:46There is no such department. You need legislation to have a department.
00:51There is no such department.
00:53There won't be, because if Elon Musk formally joins the government,
00:57he'll have to release all the information about his finances and a lot of other things, too.
01:03He's not about to do that.
01:05He's there for influence, and he's already made billions more just through his association with the president-elect.
01:13So, it's paid off big for Trump and Elon Musk.
01:17Do the words conflict of interest come into play?
01:22Conflict of interest. It used to mean something.
01:24It used to be important.
01:27It is not anymore, because that is one of the conventions, one of the traditions that Donald Trump has exploded.
01:34In his first term, his own daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump, and her husband
01:42clearly had conflicts of interest with many of their activities in the White House and around the world.
01:49Didn't mean a thing.
01:50They were never prosecuted.
01:51And, of course, now Donald Trump, who was being prosecuted for very serious crimes,
01:57like trying to organize a coup d'etat on January 6th,
02:02all of that has gone to ground.
02:06So, in terms of what we're seeing, Larry,
02:08is it very much going to be an administration constructed on grace and favor?
02:14This is an administration composed of loyalists, or as one person suggested, fealty rather than just loyalty.
02:23When Donald Trump tells his new cabinet members, with the possible exception of Elon Musk,
02:29to jump, they will all ask, how high?
02:32They won't question why they're jumping or whether it's a wise thing to jump.
02:38These are people who are completely loyal to whatever Donald Trump asks,
02:43and you might say, well, that's the norm.
02:45Yeah, it's the norm, but you see, cabinet officers, just like generals and soldiers,
02:51are supposed to say no when they're asked to do something illegal.
02:56So, we'll see.
02:57We'll see whether conflict of interest plays any role at all
03:01or whether it has any meaning anymore in American life.
03:05Larry, staying with Musk, is there a possibility here
03:09that perhaps he has more power in the broader sense than Trump actually has?
03:15Well, he's worth a lot more, and we know that Donald Trump
03:18probably respects wealth more than anything else, except how you come across on television.
03:24So, it's possible that Elon Musk has more power,
03:28and certainly he's going to have a lot more money,
03:31and many of his outside activities, his industries,
03:35depend on government money, and he's going to have more of that.
03:39So, yeah, he's a big winner from the election.
03:41He's not as big a winner as Donald Trump, who gets four years of the presidential power,
03:47and of course, as he said many times while he was running,
03:50the ability to seek revenge and retribution.
03:54Larry, do you mind if I ask you a question on foreign policy?
03:57Because obviously we'll be going into issues regarding Ukraine
04:00and the war in the Middle East as we go through the program.
04:03In terms of what happens for Ukraine, how do you see that panning out?
04:08Trump promised repeatedly that he would solve that war in one day.
04:14He's also talked about solving the Middle East situation in one day.
04:18It's going to be a busy first day.
04:20There are many other things that he's promised to do on day one.
04:24What does it mean?
04:26The assumption is that Trump has a very jolly relationship with Vladimir Putin.
04:33We shall see, but it's very clear compared to, say,
04:37Joe Biden and to other senior American leaders in both parties,
04:41Donald Trump is more favorable to the Russian position than the Ukrainian position.
04:47Now, in the Middle East, it's very clear where he stands.
04:49He is 100 percent with Israel and Netanyahu,
04:54and Netanyahu very much wanted Trump to defeat Joe Biden's vice president.
05:00Founder of the Center for Politics at University of Virginia,
05:02joining us from Charlottesville, Larry, thank you very much indeed.
05:04Larry Sabato, thank you for your analysis.
05:06We always appreciate your time, sir, here on France 24.
05:08Thank you very much indeed.