Exploring Trump-Musk bromance: Can the two powerful personalities stay connected?
President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk have formed a close bond as Trump campaigned for the presidency in 2024.
Musk showed continued support to Trump leading up to Election Day and, as a reward, Trump announced that Musk would lead the newly created "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE, also the name of a cryptocurrency backed by Musk.
The two powerful leaders who have redefined the spheres of politics and technology are closer than ever before. Which leaves the question: Will their bromance last?
"I don't think so," Adam Clark Estes, senior technology correspondent at Vox, said. "I don't think those two personalities can stay friends for too long. Even if he'll last the next two months, I think that he'll leave a tremendous impression on the Trump administration."
For now, Musk is becoming one of the president-elect's most trusted advisers, even appearing by his side on Capitol Hill.
This summer, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX endorsed the future president after an assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Musk, who owns X and has more than 200 million followers on the social media platform, quickly became one of the most prominent and outspoken figures in the Trump campaign. He organized town halls and fielded questions from voters, not shying away from making controversial statements.
"President Trump is the only one who can save democracy," Musk told an Allegheny County audience on Oct. 20, 2024.
Musk's unconventional entrance into Trump's inner circle included a place in the family photo on election night. One of his first ventures was co-founding PayPal during the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, which quickly propelled him to stardom in Silicon Valley.
"He used to be this true genius and visionary, this technological wunderkind who could think of something that would lead us to a brighter future and take us there," Estes said.
In 2002, he founded a private space exploration company, SpaceX. Two years later, his next project was Tesla, a little-known startup that grew into the most valuable car company in the world over two decades.
Tesla and Musk's other companies, such as internet provider Starlink and SpaceX, were transformed into innovative powerhouses thanks to contracts and subsidies from the federal government.
Musk defined himself as apolitical throughout the 2000s. That started to change as Musk became increasingly critical of the government and federal regulation.
"It's become clear, especially in the past two or three years, that he's taken a sharp turn to the right," Estes said. "And now he's widely viewed as Trump's biggest supporter and a main character in the MAGA sphere."
Since then, Musk has promoted conspiracy theories, reposted antisemitic messages, and spread misinformation, such as attempting to downplay the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.
He invested at least $175 million into his Super PAC, called "America PAC," for the Trump campaign. The billionaire's influence on the Trump agenda is already becoming evident.
Musk was present for at least two phone calls that Trump had with foreign leaders, including a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Starlink has been a critical provider of internet services in Ukraine.
Musk's financial connections to Trump's campaign and presidency and his businesses' ties to the federal government redefine the relationship between money and politics.
But his businesses are also facing federal investigations - like a probe of Tesla’s self-driving features by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"He is simultaneously being targeted by the federal government and being paid billions of dollars by the federal government," New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton said. "He's a guy who just becomes obsessed with getting things done. He wants to basically change the oversight of his company, and who best to ask to help do that than the president of the United States?"
