Since joining Donald Trump’s internal circle, Elon Musk has significantly flexed his political body, aggravating some of the president-elect’s most ardent followers and increasing problems over the high-profile banker’s growing effect.
Musk, who owns X, has been able to spread his information quickly on the app, underscoring the strength he commands as an appointed” first brother” of the incoming president. Earlier this month, Musk backed a bipartisan funding bill in the House, which forced the government to close to a shutdown and sent lawmakers to the negotiation of a new bill.
” Elon comes with a double-edged sword. incredibly powerful messaging tool and incredibly powerful platform. The simplicity with which he presents legislation and government is” just not how it works in the real world,” said Casey Burgat, the director of George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.
Some of Trump’s most vocal supporters are beginning to get annoyed with Musk’s growing influence with the president-elect. Loomer slammed Musk, calling him a” Stage 5 clinger”, on Steve Bannon’s War Room , podcast , on Monday.
” I think that a lot of people have a hard time speaking truth to power, and a lot of people are afraid of taking on billionaires”, Loomer said. He kind of orbits President Trump because he is the richest man in the world.
” As I called him the other day, I said he’s a Stage 5 clinger”, she continued.
Bannon also criticized Musk, telling him to” sit in the back and study” or” we’re going to rip your face off.”
Don’t go to the pulpit and start lecturing people about the direction things will lead in your first week. If you’re going to do that, we are going to rip your face off”, Bannon warned.  ,
Musk, who Trump tapped to serve as the co-chairman of the , Department of Government Efficiency, which was created to slash the size of federal operations, could also find himself at odds with GOP lawmakers if he continues to undermine negotiations. When Congress returns, it must strike a deal to fund the government after it , punted , this month on a full year of government funding. Lawmakers also , plan to draft , a border and reconciliation bill when they return.  ,
” Musk’s overly simplistic message is going to frustrate lawmakers because they’re going to hear from constituents or they’re going to see on social media that Elon said,’ All we have to do is this,’ so constituents are going to wonder,’ Why aren’t you doing that?'” Burgat said.
Knowing that it’s not always as simple as that, he said,” I think there will be a gap between that messaging and what is actually being done on Capitol Hill.”
Some lawmakers and their staff already question the show’s creator, who is already there.
A GOP Senate aide said last week, under the condition of anonymity, that “we’ve already started to see a problem where it seems like Musk is calling the shots like what we last saw… with government funding.”
” We need]Musk ] to stay out of the conversations that aren’t in his lane on social media — whether that be on immigration policy, leadership races, spending bills, the debt limit”, the person said. ” This is the recipe for chaos, and I know we all would prefer these exchanges to take place between him and the administration rather than the public square,” he said. We have a Republican trifecta, and we have a huge opportunity to get our priorities accomplished, but I think we’d like to do so without social media squabbles”.
Musk has already entered the looming race to become the speaker of the House, posting his letter of support to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA ) on Monday. However, minutes later, the Tesla CEO acknowledged Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY ) concerns about Johnson’s leadership.
Although I support and respect President Trump, Mike Johnson’s endorsement of him will not be as positive as Paul Ryan’s. We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget. pic. twitter.com/6Y7GAkcBzJ— Thomas Massie ( @RepThomasMassie ) December 30, 2024
Although I support and respect President Trump, Massie wrote that his support for Mike Johnson will likely work out just as well as his support for Speaker Paul Ryan. ” We’ve seen Johnson partner with the democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget”.
Musk replied:” You might be right, but let’s see how it goes” . ,
According to reports from the New York Times, the billionaire Tesla CEO has been utilizing one of the cottages at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, giving Musk quick access to the incoming president. In the final months of the election, Musk spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump’s election victory, and he has grown to be one of his most dependable advisors, keeping in touch with foreign leaders.  ,
Democrats have suggested that the billionaire is actually a” shadow president” due to Musk’s close-knit relationship with the incoming president, leading Trump to address the notion at an event earlier this month.
” He’s not going to be president, that I can tell you”, Trump said. ” You know why he can’t be]president]? He wasn’t born in this country”.
The honeymoon period between Trump and Musk may be coming to an end after the president-elect has been “annoyed” with the SpaceX owner, according to reporting from Mediaite. Hogan Gidley, Trump’s former White House deputy press secretary, disputed those reports during an appearance on Fox News on Monday.
” Oh, look, it’s obvious that Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and others have good relationships with Donald Trump”, Gidley pushed back. The media “likes to stir things up and try to create rifts where there aren’t any rifts” they say.
” Donald Trump has tasked Elon Musk with a big job, and that’s finding a lot of the fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government. We think he can absolutely accomplish that”, he added.
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Despite his involvement in the campaign and the transition, Musk does not have a formal position in the new administration other than that of managing a nongovernmental organization. Whether the two will remain as close once Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20 is unclear, as the president-elect isn’t afraid to cut ties with those who undermine him.
” We’ll see how long this alliance lasts. Because they are both too willing to split up, Burgat said, if we know anything about these two people, they can be best friends as long as they want, but only if they agree to do so, he added.
