There’s a steady stream of reporting from the leaky Trump transition team at Mar-a-Lago. What’s amazing is how much of the reporting is about Elon Musk overstaying his welcome and having delusions of grandeur about how HE is the virtual co-president of the United States. Elon doesn’t even understand that being appointed to lead (alongside Vivek Ramaswamy) the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is nothing more than being sort of in charge of a blue-ribbon busywork committee. Here’s more about how Elon is “overstaying his welcome” and behaving as if he’s “co-president.”
The [DOGE] announcement reinforces the closeness Elon Musk has managed to achieve with Donald Trump, even after the election. But for some people in Trump’s orbit, Musk’s presence has felt overbearing. Musk has been so aggressive in pushing his views about Trump’s second term that he’s stepping on the toes of Trump’s transition team and may be overstaying his welcome at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, according to two people familiar with the transition who have spent time at the resort over the past week.
The sources said Musk’s near-constant presence at Mar-a-Lago in the week since Election Day had begun to wear on people who’ve been in Trump’s inner circle longer than he has and who see him as overstepping his role in the transition. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.
“He’s behaving as if he’s a co-president and making sure everyone knows it,” one of the people said. “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.”
Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Musk traveled to Mar-a-Lago to watch the election returns come in last week, and he has been there much of the past week, the two sources said. They said he is there at all hours, sitting with Trump and joining calls and meetings. Musk has been involved in sensitive conversations, even before his role in the administration was announced, including having briefly joined a phone call last week between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The second person said that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything” and that he shares them so forcefully that he has begun to pester Trump insiders.
“He wants to be seen as having say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” this source said.
There’s similar reporting even in the right-wing media outlets, that Trump’s transition team is weirded out by Musk’s constant presence and his continuous reminders that Trump owes him big-time for all of his fraud and ratf–king during the election. I mean…it’s funny because Elon does own Trump. Just as Peter Thiel owns JD Vance. It’s all pretty terrifying, but also… funny. Trump and his people are absolutely miserable with Elon inserting himself into everything.
Speaking of Elon being horrible, people are leaving Twitter in droves post-election. All of the other social media platforms are seeing surges in new accounts. I’ve had a BlueSky account for more than a year – @kaiseratcb.bsky.social – and I’ve been trying to post more stuff over there post-election. CB has an account too, and she will also try to post more over there in the weeks/months to come. Millions of people are doing the same – BlueSky has added more than a million new accounts post-election, and there are more than 15 million users overall.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.