Elon Musk Is an Honorary Member of the Trump Family Now
ByOlivia Craighead,
a news writer for the Cut who covers pop culture and celebrity.Previously, she wrote about pop culture and entertainment at Gawker.
Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
It seems like Elon Musk has made himself comfortable down at Mar-a-Lago. The Tesla founder has reportedly not left Donald Trump’s side since last week’s election and is on his way to becoming an honorary member of the family. Everyone’s been saying that what the Trump family was missing was another billionaire with a rancid demeanor and a desperate need to be liked, so it’s nice that they could find that missing piece.
“Musk has been seen at Mar-a-Lago nearly every single day since Donald Trump won,” Kaitlan Collins reported for CNN on Sunday. Musk has reportedly been at Trump’s side while dining on the patio, on the golf course, and even when world leaders have called the president-elect. “He’s also weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles,” Collins said.
How much does that kind of power cost? Well, Musk’s America PAC wound up spending around $200 million to get Trump reelected, with the SpaceX CEO reportedly providing most of the money.
“While Musk himself is still not expected to take any kind of formal position inside Trump’s administration, given how complicated it would be with his companies, what’s becoming clearer tonight is that he doesn’t really need to,” Collins noted, adding that a source told her that Musk is “having just as much influence from the outside.”
The president-elect is not the only Trump who has taken a shine to Musk. Kai Trump, the 17-year-old daughter of Donald Jr., has also gotten close to the father of 12. On X, she shared a photo of her, Musk, and his son X Æ A-12 on the golf course and wrote, “Elon achieving uncle status.”
In another post the day after the election, she shared a photo of her family from the night before, writing, “The whole squad.” Musk and his son are standing in between Eric Trump and his wife, Lara.
How long do you think this will last before Trump gets annoyed with Musk? Six months? A year? Will Musk even make it to inauguration? According to tech journalist Kara Swisher, Musk isn’t long for Trump’s world.
“He definitely inserts himself all the time, that’s his style, like the guest who wouldn’t leave,” Swisher said of Musk while appearing on CNN recently. (He’s kind of like the guy in this meme.) “He’s not going anywhere until Trump throws him out, which could happen because they’re both really strong personalities who like to be at the center of attention.”
For now, though, Trump isn’t sick of Musk yet. On Tuesday, the president-elect announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would co-lead something called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In a statement, Trump said that the new department would “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Maybe their first move should be to have one person running the efficiency department? Just a suggestion.
As I’m sure you can imagine, Musk is already taking his role very seriously.
Maybe he thinks if he posts a silly dog meme, no one will notice how much of a conflict of interest his new role is. SpaceX, Musk’s aerospace company, has received billions of dollars in federal contracts. On the other hand, SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink have all been the targets of investigations and lawsuits from federal agencies. Of course, there’s a chance DOGE won’t even make it to Inauguration Day.
“They’re both narcissists, and there can be only one narcissist as head of the country, and that’s Donald Trump,” Swisher said on CNN. “They’re going to clash at some point.”
Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. No better time for a patriarch to have a massive falling-out with the weird guy he’s making everyone call “Uncle.”
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