The election of Donald Trump as president has seemingly brought with it the election of Elon Musk as a co-president, too.
The tech entrepreneur and richest man on the planet is omnipresent these days, spending a large amount of time by Trump’s side in Mar-a-Lago. He’s embraced reforms to the Senate to help streamline Trump’s agenda, got on calls with world leaders, worked on the staffing of the federal government and even been granted a post of his own. On Tuesday night, Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (Trump’s 2024 primary challenger-turned surrogate) would co-chair a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with cutting major parts of the government in the name of cost reduction.
Musk’s omnipresence is so pronounced that, already, we are starting to get hints that he may be grating on others. NBC News reported that “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, according to two people familiar with the transition who have spent time at the Palm Beach, Florida, resort over the past week.”
And while meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday (a meeting Musk attended) Trump himself thanked Musk but also reportedly mused that he couldn’t get rid of the guy.
So, is DOGE actually a real enterprise designed to truly streamline the government or is a crafty attempt to throw Musk a bone in hopes of occupying his time? Take a look.
