Prof. Richard Painter Quoted by Bloomberg About Tariffs on China Causing Conflict of Interest With Elon Musk

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, was quoted in Bloomberg about Elon Musk leading an effort to block new tariffs on graphite imports from China, pitting him against Donald Trump’s favorite economic tool. Graphite is an essential component in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, and China makes more of it than any other country. The tariff disagreement between Musk and Trump is called an early test of Musk’s influence within an administration he helped bring to power, and in which he holds his own quasi-governmental role. Musk was named to lead the Department of Government Efficiency but it isn’t clear whether Musk is an employee of the executive branch, which would make him subject to criminal conflict-of-interest statutes barring him from weighing in on matters affecting his businesses. Prof. Painter said, “It’s an obvious conflict. This is the problem — we don’t know whether he’s in the government or out of it.”