CNN
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Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club has been filled with two types of people over the past 48 hours. One is those who are eyeing a job in the next president’s administration, and the other is those who are trying to influence President-elect Trump to hire top candidates.
But sources say Elon Musk has been overshadowing all of this and has had a lot of influence. The tech billionaire has been seen at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida, almost every day since Trump won last week’s election, often dining together on the patio in the evenings. On Sundays, I play golf with my family.
Mr. Musk was present when several world leaders called Mr. Trump, and has taken into account staffing decisions, including the CEOs of SpaceX and Tesla making it clear that they prefer certain roles. There is.
Musk was with Trump at Mar-a-Lago when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called to congratulate the president-elect the day after the election, according to a person briefed on the call. . As Trump called the speakers, President Zelenskiy thanked Musk for providing communications to Ukraine through the billionaire’s Starlink internet service.
On Sunday, Mr. Musk joined the Republican Senate leadership race after Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, quickly backed President Trump’s request that those vying for the leadership position support recess appointments of their nominees. , supported him. This is a way for the president to try to circumvent Congress as sought by Senate Democrats. You can basically block it.
Musk is not only close to President Trump, but also to transition co-chairman Howard Lutnick. Lutnick, a billionaire with financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, is leading the personnel aspects of the transition.
Sources say Trump is obsessed with Musk.
“We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many geniuses,” the president-elect said in his victory speech early Wednesday morning.
Musk himself is not expected to hold an official position within the Trump administration, but in reality there is no need for him to do so, one person said, adding that X’s owners have significant outside influence as well. He pointed out that there was.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have led an efficiency panel and publicly proposed cutting spending within the federal government, but a person familiar with the conversations surrounding Mr. Musk told CNN on Thursday that given the current situation, Mr. The newspaper reported that he said it was unlikely he would even want a full-time government job. That would mean his role in the company he leads.
In fact, it seemed more likely that Musk would be appointed to the Blue Ribbon Committee. There, Mr. Musk still has significant access, but he is not subject to government ethics rules and would have to sell assets or put them in a blind trust to circumvent them. Conflict of interest.
As of mid-October, Mr. Musk had donated nearly $119 million to political action committees he set up to support Mr. Trump, according to Federal Election Commission filings. He also attended rallies with President Trump and hosted a friendly interview with President Trump on social media platform X.
Mr. Musk’s big bet against Mr. Trump paid off almost immediately. The day after the election, investors drove Tesla stock up nearly 15%. The move boosted the value of the 411 million shares owned entirely by Musk by more than $15 billion, hitting a two-year high for Tesla shares as a whole.
CNN’s Tara John, Victoria Butenko, Nick Robertson, Kristen Holmes, Jeremy Herb, Kayla Tauche, Evan Perez, Chris Isidore and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.
