WASHINGTON — Elon Musk ripped President Trump’s personnel director Sergio Gor as “a snake” following The Post’s report that Gor failed to submit himself to a standard background check despite serving as the administration’s top vetter of political appointees.
“He’s a snake,” the former Department of Government Efficiency leader tweeted late Wednesday.
Gor, 38, allegedly played a major role in causing Trump’s intense falling-out with Musk, 53, this month by convincing the president to yank the nomination of the SpaceX CEO’s personal friend Jared Isaacman to lead NASA shortly before the Senate was due to confirm him.
Musk and Trump have taken steps to walk back a stunning bout of insults that peaked June 5 when the billionaire endorsed Trump’s impeachment and the president threatened to cancel “Billions and Billions of dollars” of federal contracts for Musk’s companies.
Gor’s role in the saga outraged some of Trump’s key advisers who viewed him as allowing personal grievances to put at risk the president’s political agenda.
Musk was Trump’s top financial donor in last year’s election, pouring more than $250 million into the campaign.
Isaacman’s nomination was one of the few that Musk intensely cared about, sources said, and the revocation turned Musk’s tepid criticism of a bill packed with Trump’s campaign promises — including to cut taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security — into outspoken calls to “kill” the legislation, backed by a call to unseat those who vote in favor.
Gor, tasked with recruiting and vetting more than 4,000 executive-branch appointees, said Isaacman was pulled over his donations to Democrats and that Trump made the final decision.
A number of prominent former Democrats serve in Trump’s administration, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary and Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
The presidential personnel chief, meanwhile, did not submit his Standard Form 86, or SF-86, to begin a standard security clearance background check — despite virtually all other White House aides doing so.
The form is typically submitted before officials begin work.
Gor, who has an interim security clearance, has now “completed” the more than 100-page questionaire for a permanent clearance, the White House says, though it’s unclear when he intends to submit it.
The form requires security-clearance applicants to list their birthplace and foreign connections.
Gor has described himself as from Malta, but the Maltese government confirmed to The Post he was not born there.
The powerful aide, who says he immigrated to the US at age 12, declined to identify his birthplace, other than to say it was not Russia.
Gor did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on Musk’s tweet.
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