Re: Elon Musk versus the intelligence community

On 2025-03-17 7:49 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

On Mar 17, 2025 at 2:34:44 PM PDT, ""Blueshirt"" <blueshirt@indigo.news>
wrote:
 

Your Name wrote:
>

  Trump the Chump bought a Tesla car solely to show "support"
  for Muskrat's ailing car company, but that car has 37 recall
  notices for problems that require fixing before he can even
  drive it (not that he ever will of course, it's purely a
  publicity stunt).

>
He wouldn't be allowed to drive it anyway. It's a rule that
Presidents of the USA (and former Presidents) are not allowed to
drive any motor vehicle on a public road.

 It's not law. It's merely a Secret Service policy that protectees do not
drive. Public roads have nothing to do with it.
 When George Bush was on vacation at his Texas ranch, he would frequently jump
in the ranch pickup truck and go driving around his property. The USSS bosses
flipped out and even tried hiding the keys to the truck but in the end, the
president is the president and what he says goes. Bush eventually compromised
and agreed to not drive the truck around unless there was an agent in the
truck with him.
 

  So for Trump to drive
a car, Tesla or otherwise, it would need to be on a private road
and with Secret Service approval...

 Nonsense. As I said above, the president is the president. He's the boss of
the USSS and if he really wants to drive, no one can legally stop him. And
public roads are irrelevant, unless the president doesn't have a driver
license.
 

If I'm not mistaken, Queen Elizabeth II was an avid driver, having learned when she was a mechanic for military vehicles during WWII, but was not permitted to drive on public roads, at least as Queen. However, she loved to drive on the private roads on her estates, like Balmoral. I distinctly remember seeing that depicted in a movie where the Queen (played by Helen Mirren if I recall correctly) was hauling ass around Balmoral in a Land Rover.
I also remember that Prince Philip routinely drove on public roads into his 90s and only finally agreed to give up his license when he had a minor-ish collision a couple of years before he died at 99.
--
Rhino