Trump’s Team Is Already Sick of Elon Musk
One week since Election Day and roughly three months since he joined the campaign in earnest, and Elon Musk is already rubbing Donald Trump’s team the wrong way.The world’s richest man has reportedly spent “nearly every single day” of the last week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to CNN. Musk has been spotted golfing with the president-elect, dining with him and his wife, Melania, and has even been in the room while Trump phones world leaders, hopping on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday.And while the Tesla CEO will likely not hold a Cabinet position in the forthcoming administration due to his companies, he’s playing no small role in staffing it—something that has particularly frustrated Trump’s transition team, according to tech journalist Kara Swisher. Swisher noted that Musk’s ongoing presence at the resort has some members of Trump’s entourage viewing him as the “guest that wouldn’t leave.”“He definitely inserts himself all the time, that’s his style,” Swisher explained about the South African billionaire to CNN on Monday. “I’ve heard from Trump people, calling me saying, ‘Oh, wow. This is odd’. And it is.”But, as Swisher notes, that will keep happening until Trump throws him out.Musk and his policies will be the likely benefactor of his extended stay with the president-elect, whose opinion is famously swayed by whomever he last interacted with. But, according to Swisher, the relationship between the two self-imagined strongmen is destined to flame out.“They’re both narcissists, and there can be only one narcissist as head of the country, and that’s Donald Trump, who just won the election,” Swisher said. “You know he owes things to Elon, but at some point, you know if he takes too much of the attention—think about Steve Bannon. You remember he was on the cover of that magazine and how quickly he got out, even though he was critical to Trump’s first campaign and he was right in the middle of the White House, and then he wasn’t.“Trump goes through people like tissues, essentially,” Swisher continued. “And even if it’s Musk, they’re going to clash at some point.”
One week since Election Day and roughly three months since he joined the campaign in earnest, and Elon Musk is already rubbing Donald Trump’s team the wrong way.
The world’s richest man has reportedly spent “nearly every single day” of the last week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to CNN. Musk has been spotted golfing with the president-elect, dining with him and his wife, Melania, and has even been in the room while Trump phones world leaders, hopping on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday.
And while the Tesla CEO will likely not hold a Cabinet position in the forthcoming administration due to his companies, he’s playing no small role in staffing it—something that has particularly frustrated Trump’s transition team, according to tech journalist Kara Swisher. Swisher noted that Musk’s ongoing presence at the resort has some members of Trump’s entourage viewing him as the “guest that wouldn’t leave.”
“He definitely inserts himself all the time, that’s his style,” Swisher explained about the South African billionaire to CNN on Monday. “I’ve heard from Trump people, calling me saying, ‘Oh, wow. This is odd’. And it is.”
But, as Swisher notes, that will keep happening until Trump throws him out.
Musk and his policies will be the likely benefactor of his extended stay with the president-elect, whose opinion is famously swayed by whomever he last interacted with. But, according to Swisher, the relationship between the two self-imagined strongmen is destined to flame out.
“They’re both narcissists, and there can be only one narcissist as head of the country, and that’s Donald Trump, who just won the election,” Swisher said. “You know he owes things to Elon, but at some point, you know if he takes too much of the attention—think about Steve Bannon. You remember he was on the cover of that magazine and how quickly he got out, even though he was critical to Trump’s first campaign and he was right in the middle of the White House, and then he wasn’t.
“Trump goes through people like tissues, essentially,” Swisher continued. “And even if it’s Musk, they’re going to clash at some point.”
