For 2 weeks, Donald Trump has welcomed Elon Musk into his world. On Tuesday, it was Musk’s flip to play host to the president-elect.
Trump flew to South Texas to observe as Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starship rocket close to the Mexican border. Trump listened intently because the world’s richest man defined how the check would work and demonstrated with a mannequin. After which Trump squinted into the brilliant sky to observe liftoff.
It didn’t go completely -– the reuseable booster didn’t return to the launch pad because it had executed on a earlier check final month. As a substitute, the booster was directed to a splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico.
However Trump’s presence on the launch was a exceptional show of intimacy between the 2 males, one with implications for American politics, the federal government, international coverage and even the opportunity of people reaching Mars.
Musk spent round $200 million to assist Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris within the presidential race, and he’s been given unparalleled entry. He’s endorsed Trump on nominees for the brand new administration, joined the president-elect’s telephone name with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and been tapped to co-chair an advisory panel on slicing the dimensions of the federal forms.
Along with political affect, Musk may benefit personally as nicely. SpaceX, his rocket firm, has billions of {dollars} in authorities contracts and the objective of ultimately beginning a colony on Mars. He’s additionally CEO of Tesla, which manufactures electrical automobiles, and has battled with regulators over security considerations involving autonomous driving.
“Trump has the largest doable regard for individuals who break the principles and get away with it,” mentioned William Galston, a senior fellow in governance research on the Brookings Establishment, a Washington-based suppose tank. “Musk has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in doing that.”
To prime if off, Musk owns the social media firm X, formally often known as Twitter, which he has harnessed as an influential perch to advertise Trump and his agenda.
“Cease the Swamp!” he wrote on Tuesday as he shared a warning that entrenched Washington pursuits try to undermine Trump earlier than his inauguration.
Earlier than the election, Musk rejected the concept he was anticipating any favors in return for supporting Trump within the presidential race.
“There is no such thing as a quid professional quo,” he posted on X in September. “With a Trump administration, we are able to execute main authorities reform, take away bureaucratic paperwork that’s smothering the nation and unlock a brand new age of prosperity.”
Nevertheless, Trump has not gone anyplace with out Musk within the two weeks since beating Harris. Musk joined Trump at a gathering with Home Republicans in Washington and sat subsequent to him at an Final Preventing Championship match in New York. The journey to Texas for the rocket launch was simply Trump’s third time exterior Florida because the election.
A lot of Trump’s exercise is going on with little public entry for the press. In contrast to his predecessors, he has opted in opposition to recurrently making his journey plans or occasions open to journalists.
The connection between Trump and Musk was not at all times so shut.
Two years in the past, Trump was mocking Musk in stump speeches and Musk was saying it was time for Trump to “cling up his hat & sail into the sundown.”
“Trump could be 82 at finish of time period, which is simply too outdated to be chief government of something, not to mention the US of America,” Musk wrote on social media.
However Musk swiftly endorsed Trump after the previous president survived an assassination try in July. He shortly grew to become a central determine in Trump’s orbit, showing at occasions extra like his operating mate than Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
Trump began boasting about Musk’s accomplishments at marketing campaign rallies, reminiscent of when Starship’s reusable rocket booster returned to the launch tower on a earlier event and was caught by mechanical arms.
“These arms seize it such as you seize your child, similar to you seize your little child. And it hugged it and simply put it down, and there it was,” Trump mentioned.
Musk was with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on election evening and has spent a lot of the 2 weeks since there. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump posted a photograph of her with Musk at certainly one of Trump’s golf resorts, writing that Musk was “attaining uncle standing.”
Final week, Musk appeared in a golden ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, seated within the heart of the room as a visitor of honor at an occasion. Trump, in his remarks on the black tie occasion, mentioned Musk’s IQ is “about as excessive as they will get” and praised him as “a extremely good man.”
“He launched a rocket three weeks in the past after which he went to Pennsylvania to marketing campaign as a result of he thought of this extra essential than launching rockets that price billions of {dollars},” Trump mentioned.
He joked about Musk’s fixed presence at Mar-a-Lago, saying, “He likes this place. I can’t get him out of right here.”
He added, “And what, I like having him right here.”
Musk mentioned of the election outcomes: “The general public has given us a mandate that might not be extra clear.”
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Worth reported from New York.
