After months of rapprochement, meetings between Trump and his so-called “first friend” have become “tense,” according to a New York Times journalist.
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President-elect Donald Trump complained that his “first friend,” Elon Musk, closed the doors, according to a journalist.
Trump and Musk have grown closer in recent months, with the tech billionaire reportedly living in a cabin a few hundred yards from the main space at Mar-a-Lago. Trump also asked Musk to co-lead the new Department of Government Effectiveness.
But it seems that paradise does exist, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
“Trump does complain a bit to people about how Musk is around a lot,” New York Times journalist said on the podcast “On with Kara Swisher” on Monday.
“Musk has been a major donor to Trump this campaign cycle and he’s sort of tied into various areas around Trump which makes things more complicated,” she said. Musk donated more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s campaign.
“Musk is more willing to anger Trump than many others and less involved in what that means.
“It’s a fraught relationship and has potential for becoming even more so,” she said.
The two men have become so close that some nicknamed the Tesla CEO “President Musk. ” But the president-elect temporarily addressed the issue in a speech in Arizona last month: “No, he’s not going to take over the presidency. . . That’s not going to happen. »
When asked about Trump’s reaction to the “President Musk” line, Haberman said it “definitely bothered him. ” And he continued: “Trump is not a wind-up toy, but there are some very express things that can make him zotz. »
But he predicted that once Trump takes office, “it’s going to go a little bit. “
“I don’t anticipate that Musk will have a permit in the West Wing” or that he will have a pass to roam freely around the White House, he said.
“Trump keeps people around for a long time if they are of use to him and he almost never totally closes the door to somebody,” whether they are rich or not, Haberman added. But, “Musk comes with something that ‘president [Steve] Bannon’ did not, which is a lot of money, and I think that buys him a lot of time.”
She added that others in his inner circle are “struggling with how aggressive Musk can be in their interactions.” But she believed that they wouldn’t admit that publicly.
Musk is “influential” to Trump and yet he is his most influential advisor, he said. Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller take that title, according to Haberman.
Haberman’s report comes after anonymous sources told Mediaite that Trump was “annoyed” with Musk’s omnipresence shortly after he engaged in a so-called “civil war” with some of Trump’s prominent MAGA allies over H-1B visas.
“Trump is 100 percent upset,” a source who worked on Trump’s re-election campaign told the outlet last month. “There is a Chinese saying: “Two tigers live on the top of a mountain. »
Another source said: “At first it had some appeal, but it looked like it could go awry. . . Trump is Trump. ” I think Trump is like that. Someone who is very provider and has influence would be a problem.
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