In nearly every meeting that President-elect Donald J. Trump holds at Mar-a-Lago, alongside him is someone who has been elected to nothing, nominated to nothing and, only a few months ago, had no meaningful relationship with him. Elon Musk.
The world’s richest person has ascended to a position of extraordinary, unofficial influence in Mr. Trump’s transition process, playing a role that makes him indisputably America’s most powerful private citizen. He has sat in on nearly every job interview with the Trump team and bonded with the Trump family, and he is trying to install his Silicon Valley friends in plum positions in the next administration.
Musk has assumed an almost mythical aura in Trump’s inner circle. At Mar-a-Lago one recent evening, he walked into the dining room about 30 minutes after the president-elect did and received a similar standing ovation, according to two people who saw him enter.
Musk, often with his 4-year-old son X on his lap, has spent most of the last week at Mar-a-Lago, joining not just interviews but almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had. He briefly shuttled back to Austin, Texas, where he has a $35 million compound, before returning on Friday, where he ate in Mar-a-Lago dining room and on its patio, roamed the gift shop and spent time on the golf course — all alongside the president-elect. “I’m happy to be the first buddy!” he replied to a social-media follower this weekend. This article is based on roughly a dozen interviews with Republican donors, politicians and friends of Musk, many of whom insisted on anonymity to talk about private conversations.
Publicly, over just the first week of the transition, Musk has endorsed Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to be the next Senate majority leader; urged Republican senators to embrace recess appointments; Trump suggested that all government employees should submit a “weekly email of accomplishments”; called for the Department of Education to be closed; solicited recommendations for new administration roles that he could bring to Trump; wondered if Canada was dying, and posted plenty of Trump-themed memes.
Behind the scenes, Musk’s behavior has been far more hands-on than even some of his allies expected. His role, in the eyes of some Trump aides, even outstrips that of Howard Lutnick and Linda E. McMahon, the two formally appointed leaders of the Trump transition.
He has sat in on calls with foreign leaders, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, and plans to meet in person this week with President Javier Milei of Argentina when Mr. Milei visits Mar-a-Lago. Musk has also attended at least one national security meeting with Trump alongside the likes of Stephen Miller, a top aide, and Donald Trump Jr., according to a person briefed on the meeting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/us/politics/musk-trump-transition-mar-a-lago.html
https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/business/elon-musk-trump-government-companies-hnk-intl/index.html
