‘High on the list of items’: Ramaswamy threat to claw back Rivian loan sparks criticism of Musk’s conflict of interest

Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk. Last week, the Department of Energy announced a $6.6 billion conditional loan commitment to Rivian, the electric vehicle startup that is a nascent competitor to Tesla, Musk’s $1 trillion car company. Ramaswamy says that loan and others like it are “high on the list of items” that he will look to claw back once his cost-cutting commission, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gets going next year. “Those types of last-minute actions that are taking place in the lame duck merit particularly special scrutiny,” Ramaswamy told CNN. Since the election, Biden officials have continued to hand out billions of dollars in government-backed loans and other federal funds, much of it to finance clean energy and domestic chip manufacturing projects. It’s unclear whether Ramaswamy will make good on his promise to claw back that money, or what legal grounds he would use to justify it. Despite its broad mandate of cutting government waste, DOGE has no statutory authority and is essentially a presidential advisory commission that can make recommendations. Only Congress can claw back money it has previously approved.