Tech billionaire Elon Musk was handed a major win Tuesday evening when President-elect Donald Trump announced that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” with Vivek Ramaswamy.
The announcement reinforces the closeness Musk has managed to achieve with Trump, even after the election. But for some people in Trump’s orbit, Musk’s presence has felt overbearing.
Musk has been so aggressive in pushing his views about Trump’s second term that he’s stepping on the toes of Trump’s transition team and may be overstaying his welcome at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to two people familiar with the transition who have spent time at the resort over the past week.
The sources said Musk’s near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago in the week since Election Day had begun to wear on people who’ve been in Trump’s inner circle longer than he has and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.
“He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it,” one of the people said.
“And he’s sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He’s trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one,” this person added.
Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In a statement, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency.”
In another statement, a separate Trump-Vance spokesperson, Anna Kelly, said: "Elon Musk is a genius, an innovator, and has literally made history by building creative, modern, and efficient systems. Elon Musk has dedicated himself to America’s future by offering to serve with President Trump to ensure our government works more efficiently and uses America’s taxpayer dollars effectively."
Musk traveled to Mar-a-Lago to watch the election returns come in last week, and he has been there much of the past week, the two sources said. They said he is there at all hours, sitting with Trump and joining calls and meetings.
Musk has been involved in sensitive conversations, even before his role in the administration was announced, including having briefly joined a phone call last week between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The second person said that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything” and that he shares them so forcefully that he has begun to pester Trump insiders.
“He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” this source said.
The person said some Trump advisers said they were concerned that Musk didn’t understand one key to being effective in Trump’s world: keeping a low profile. Musk’s engagement has been overly aggressive and may hurt his standing in the long run, the source said.
The second source also said Musk appeared to be pushing his own agenda, instead of focusing on Trump’s. They said that while Musk is clearly a smart and capable person, the transition is about ensuring those loyal to Trump will be the ones carrying out government policies.
“Appointing people because they are loyal to Elon doesn’t work,” the source said.
In a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday morning, Trump spoke fondly of Musk, according to two lawmakers in the room, praising him for his time and dedication to the election. Trump said Musk set aside his own business interests for the campaign and didn’t ask for anything in return. At one point, Trump joked about Musk’s continued presence in his orbit, saying: “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him.” The lawmakers insisted the statements were made in jest.
Musk has been among Trump’s most energetic supporters. His super PAC spent more than $152 million to elect Trump and other Republican candidates, with much of the money coming from Musk himself. He held rallies for Trump in battleground state Pennsylvania, offered $1 million daily giveaways for registered voters and turned his social media app, X, into a megaphone for Trump.
In posts on X in the past week, Musk has pushed various policy ideas, including deporting immigrants and slashing government spending.
“Very productive day of work by the transition team,” Musk posted Monday night in a response to Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, one of the two advisers leading the transition.
Musk has also shared photos from Mar-a-Lago, including a photo with him and the extended Trump family. On Sunday, one of Trump’s grandchildren, Kai Trump, posted a photo on X of herself with Musk, writing that he was “achieving uncle status.”
Musk’s private jet landed in West Palm Beach, near Mar-a-Lago, Tuesday of last week and was there for about 24 hours, according to the @ElonJet account on Bluesky, which uses publicly available flight data. The plane took off from West Palm Beach last Wednesday and headed to Austin, Texas, where Musk has a home, but then it landed again in West Palm Beach on Friday and has been there for the four days since then, according to the account. It’s not clear whether Musk was on the jet for every flight.
The relationship between Musk and Trump has been rocky over the years, despite their recent alliance. Musk said in 2022 that Trump should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset,” prompting Trump to hit back at the time that Musk would be “worthless” without government subsidies.
There has been intense speculation about the long-term viability of the relationship, given the ambitions and personalities of the two men, with many people on social media predicting an eventual falling-out.
But Musk has already gained since the election in one respect: Tesla’s share price has risen more than 15% from last Wednesday’s opening price, outpacing the 1.8% growth in the S&P 500 over the same period.
