'First buddy': Elon earns family status in Trump world as Musk expands political footprint

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.— Tech billionaire Elon Musk earned "uncle" status in the Trump family, as he increasingly spends time at Mar-a-Lago and traveled with President-elect Donald Trump following his massive win last week. 

"Elon achieving uncle status," Kai Trump, the president-elect’s granddaughter, posted to X over the weekend, accompanied by a photo of the pair, along with Musk’s young son, on the golf course. 

Musk officially endorsed Trump over the summer, when the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president survived the first assassination attempt on his life this election cycle, and proceeded to join the campaign trail, most notably in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. Trump sailed to victory last week, after securing electoral votes from Pennsylvania and other battleground states, such as Georgia. 

All in, Trump earned 312 electoral votes, sweeping all seven of the battleground states when votes were tallied. 

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Musk has been at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s resort and residence in Palm Beach, since last week for the election, where he was spotted dining with Donald and Melania Trump and has taken on the title "first buddy" due to his tight relationship with the former and upcoming president.

Musk traveled with Trump on Wednesday morning from Florida to Washington, D.C., where the president-elect met with House Republicans before meeting President Biden at the White House.

"I look forward… to having a smooth transition. We'll do everything we can to make sure you're accommodated, what you need," Biden said during his meeting with Trump when reporters were briefly allowed in the Oval Office. 

Trump added, "politics is tough and in many cases it’s not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today."

"I appreciate very much the transition that's so smooth. It will be as smooth as it can get, and I very much appreciate that," he continued. 

The meeting between Trump and Biden lasted about two hours, with White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and incoming Chief of Staff Susie Wiles attending the meeting. 

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Musk joined a separate closed-door meeting with House GOPers, with a source telling Fox News that Trump praised Musk during his roughly 40-minute address. He noted Musk has been doing well since joining the Trump orbit at Mar-a-Lago, even reportedly joking he "can't get rid of him."

On Tuesday evening, Trump announced that Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new task force called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will work to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies," Trump said in a statement on the announcements.

The SpaceX CEO had made cutting government fat and red tape a hallmark of his campaigning for the Trump-Vance ticket, noting while speaking to Trump supporters in Pennsylvania that he has personally dealt with a "bunch of nutty stories" related to government overregulation, including how SpaceX had to study the probability of its Starship rocket hitting a whale or shark. 

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"SpaceX had to do this study to see if Starship would hit a shark. And I'm like... it's a big ocean. There are a lot of sharks. It’s not impossible, but it’s very unlikely. So we said, 'Fine, we’ll do the analysis. Can you give us the shark data?'" Musk recounted during a Pennsylvania rally last month. He said the National Marine Fisheries Service ordered SpaceX to carry out the study. 

"They were like, 'No, we can’t give you the shark data.' Well, then, OK, we’re in a bit of a quandary. How do we solve this shark probability issue? They said, 'Well, we could give it to our western division, but we don’t trust them.' I’m like, ‘Am I in a comedy sketch here?'" Musk continued. 

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"Eventually, we got the data and could run the analysis to say, 'Yeah, the sharks are going to be fine.' But they wouldn’t let us proceed with the launch until we did this crazy shark analysis," he added of the anecdote. 

After Trump announced Musk and Ramaswamy would lead the Department of Government Efficiency, Musk said DOGE will publicly release any actions made and will listen to the public on how to best cut government spending. 

"All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency. Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know! We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars. This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining," Musk posted to X later on Tuesday. 

Fox News' Kelly Phares contributed to this report.