Elon Musk has already started to rub up members of Donald Trump’s top team the wrong way.
According to NBC reports, the Tesla billionaire has been operating like he is co-president since the election, even though his official capacity is the co-lead of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Two people familiar with the Trump team’s transition have spoken out about his day-to-day involvement in the Republican camp, and it would seem relations have started to sour already.
“He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it,” one of the two people told NBC.
“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,” they added.
The second person said that Musk had been overstepping his bounds, and that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything.”
“He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” the source said.
Musk has been involved in a number of high-profile meetings with Trump, including with Iran’s UN ambassador and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
While Trump has suggested that Musk’s role will be merely advisory, the high-level appointment has signalled that Trump’s White House is open for business to anyone who helps him politically and financially.
And given that Musk transformed an essential information environment into a propaganda machine, with the sole purpose of having Trump reelected, he should get a good look in.
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