The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman said President-elect Trump is complaining that tech billionaire Elon Musk is “around a lot.”
“Trump does complain a bit to people about how Musk is around a lot,” Haberman said on a Monday episode of the “On with Kara Swisher” podcast, which was highlighted by Mediaite.
“Privately, Musk, Jonathan Swan and I reported recently with Ryan Mac that Musk has been staying at this cottage at Mar-a-Lago,” she added.
Musky heavily supported Trump in his bid for the presidency, endorsing him following an assassination attempt against the president-elect in July. He also made appearances at rallies for Trump and started America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC.
“So, he really parked himself in Trump’s face,” Haberman said in her podcast appearance. “But what that looks like, Kara, when Trump becomes president, I don’t know.”
In November, Trump said the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), which aims to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies, would be headed up by Musk and former GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
DOGE would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” and work alongside the White House Office of Management and Budget, the president-elect said.
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” Trump added. “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.”
Haberman said on the Monday episode of the podcast that she doesn’t believe Musk “will move into the Lincoln Bedroom” of the White House, “but I do think that at the moment, and again we’ll see what this looks like, I think he’s gonna try to have as much proximity to Trump as possible.”
The Hill has reached out to Tesla and the Trump transition team for comment.
