Tech billionaire Elon Musk President-elect Donald Trump won a big victory on Tuesday evening announced Tesla and SpaceX CEO Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” he said.
The announcement reinforces the rapprochement Musk has been able to achieve with Trump even after the election. But for some people in Trump’s orbit, Musk’s presence seemed overwhelming.
According to two people familiar with the transition, Musk has been so aggressive in pushing his ideas for a second term for Trump that he is stepping on the toes of Trump’s transition team and overstaying his welcome at Mar-a-Lago. Palm Beach, Florida, resort last week.
Musk’s near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago in the week since Election Day has begun to rub off on people who have been in Trump’s inner circle longer than the tech billionaire and see him as overstepping his role in the U.S., the sources said. transition. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“He acts like a co-chairman and makes sure everyone knows it,” one of the people said of Musk.
“And he sure takes a lot of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He is trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. The president is not indebted to anyone,” this person added.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
“Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to make America great again,” Caroline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition, said in a statement. Elon Musk is a once-in-a-generation business leader, and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”
Two sources said Musk traveled to Mar-a-Lago last Tuesday night to watch the election results, and he has been there for most of the past week. They said Musk was there around the clock, sitting with Trump, joining calls and meetings.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been involved in sensitive conversations, including briefly, even before his role in the administration was announced. join a phone call Last week between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
This was said by Elon Musk, Trump’s adviser He would join Trump in a Wednesday meeting with Republican lawmakers ahead of the leadership election.
The second person said Musk had “opinions about anything and everything” and shared them so strongly that he began to annoy Trump insiders.
“He wants to be seen as having a say in everything (even if he’s not),” the source said.
According to the person, some Trump advisers have expressed concern that Musk may not understand one key to being effective in Trump’s world: keeping a low profile. Musk’s engagement was overly aggressive and could hurt his position in the long run, the source said.
A second source also said that instead of focusing on Trump’s agenda, Musk is pushing his own agenda. They said that while Musk is clearly a smart and capable person, the transition is about ensuring that Trump loyalists are the ones implementing government policy.
“Appointing people because they’re loyal to Elon doesn’t work,” the source said.
Musk has been among Trump’s most energetic supporters. His super PAC spent more 152 million dollars Electing Trump and other Republican candidates, getting most of the money from Musk himself. He held rallies for Trump in his battleground state of Pennsylvania, offered $1 million in daily donations to registered voters and turned the social media app X into an app. A megaphone for Trump.
Writing in X last week, Musk floated a variety of policy ideas, including deporting immigrants and cutting government spending.
“A very productive day by the transition team,” Musk placed Monday night, in response to Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, one of the two advisers leading the transition.
Musk also shared photos From Mar-a-Lago, including a photo with him and the extended Trump family. Kay Trump, one of Trump’s grandchildren, on Sunday posted a picture In X, he wrote that together with Musk, Musk “achieved the status of an uncle”.
Musk’s private jet came down It was in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago last Tuesday and was there for about 24 hours, according to an @ElonJet account on Bluesky, which uses publicly available flight data. Airplane took off Last Wednesday from West Palm Beach and went to Austin, Texas, where Musk has a home, but then fell to the ground again Friday in West Palm Beach and has been there for four days since then, by the count. It is unclear whether Musk was on board every flight.
Relations between Musk and Trump have been strained over the years, despite their recent alliance. Musk He said in 2022 That Trump should “hang up his hat and ride off into the sunset” prompted Trump to call back the time when Musk would be “worthless” without government subsidies.
Given the ambitions and personalities of the two men, there is intense speculation about the long-term prospects of the relationship between Musk and Trump, with many on social media predicting an eventual rift between the two.
But Musk has already gained in one way since the election: Tesla’s stock price is up more than 15% from its opening price last Wednesday, outperforming the S&P 500’s 1.8% gain. during the same period.